


Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Team Eviolite - Book 2: Time Shocked

by Evening_Meadow_Grace



Series: Team Eviolite - Oracion [3]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Fantasy, Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2019-10-13 23:38:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 195,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17497508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evening_Meadow_Grace/pseuds/Evening_Meadow_Grace
Summary: Most everything in my life was normal up until I met Alex. Now I'm in an exploration team of my own, exploring the very depths of the dungeons I used to be so scared of. Now, I've found myself sucked into another crisis that has stricken the world, a crisis that could possibly destroy time. On top of that, I find out that an evil force is after us...Great. -E





	1. Eve's New Friend

_**Ch.1: Eve's New Friend!** _

* * *

**Wigglytuff's guild exterior, Eve's Pov:**

"There it is, Wigglytuff's guild, I made it!" I said as I approached the front entrance of a Wigglytuff shaped tent. The entrance had a steel grate that, with the help of the tent's hight and the two alit torches near strange totem poles gave it a sort of eerie feel. It was quite strange looking. The look of it made me shiver. "No, I came here for a reason! I have to carry through with this. I cannot be labeled as a coward forever!" I said to myself as I proceeded to look at the strange grate that looked eerily out of place. "That must be what I step on for clearance to the guild." I said out loud. I then walked up and stepped onto the grate. Just as I stepped onto it, I heard a voice yell. "Pokemon detected, pokemon detected!" This, of course, freaked me out and I immediately jumped off of the grate. I then heard the same voice grumble something about "ding, dong, ditching and foolish kids. /I can't do it! After traveling all this way, I chickened out and couldn't do it. Why do I have to be such a coward?/ I thought miserably. I then remembered something. Treasure town is famous not only for it's guild, but it's proximity to a beautiful beach. I've always wanted to go there. My parents said that they met on this beach a long time ago and that it had the most beautiful sunsets they'd ever seen. I sighed. "I guess I'll have to try again tommorow. Maybe I can also spend this time figuring out what this strange rock I found is." I said, disappointed while I headed for the beach. Even though it was just a rock, I considered it my prized possession.

* * *

**The Beach:**

As I reached the beach, I was immediately stricken by it's beauty. The sunset was magnificent. I then noticed bubbles, and upon closer inspection, I found out that there were crabby blowing the bubbles on the cliff sides. It was so beautiful the way the sunlight refracted off of the surface of the bubbles, creating a sort of prism. "My parents were right, this is beautiful." I said with wide eyes as I sat, watching the sunset. Suddenly, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. "Huh, what's that over there?" I said to myself as I began making my way towards it. As I approached it, I saw that it was a pokemon. I started panicking as I ran up to it. "Hey, are you ok!" I said as I ran up to the snivy laying in the sand. It was apparently unconscious. "Come on, wake up!" I said while shaking the snivy.

"Ugh, huh, where am I?" Asked the snivy as it woke up. From the sound of it's voice, I could tell it was a male.

"Great, you're awake, you had me scared for a second." I said after sighing.

"Huh, a-a talking pokemon?" He asked in shock. Jeez, it's like he's never seen a pokemon talk before. (Little did I know that was true.)

"Yeah, of course, all pokemon can talk can't they?" I asked rhetorically with a laugh. "I mean, you're a pokemon and you're talking." I said which seemed to surprise him.

"What? What do you mean I'm a pokemon? I'm a human, not a pokemon." He said to my surprise. A human? Ugh, here we go again. Does that world have a hole in it or something?

"Well, you look like a snivy to me." I said, a little unsure despite Austin, and a lot just to tease him. "Are you sure you're not pulling a trick on me?" I continued a bit smugly. He didn't seem to catch it though.

He had already checked himself head to foot. "Yes, I'm telling the truth, I used to be human! Please, you have to believe me!" He said in a scared tone.

"Hahaha it's ok, I was just kidding! I already know someone who used to be human, in fact, he's my twin sister's boyfriend. If anything, you're the one I should be begging to believe me." I said, still laughing.

He looked at me inquisitively. "You mean someone like me?" He asked, calming down.

"You heard me, my sister's boyfriend used to be human like you, although the way you got to being a pokemon is still a mystery. I would assume it's not the same..." I said, trying to think.

"If you don't mind me asking, where is he?" He asked me, seemingly getting impatient. I sighed.

"Probably along way away unless he decided to follow me. Anyway, do you remember how you got here?" I asked him.

He seemed to think about it. "Mmm...no, I can't remember a thing." He said uncertainly.

"Just like Austin, hmm? Do you at least remember your name? Austin did according to my sister." I asked curiously.

"Huh? Oh, my name... Oh yeah, my name is...Alex." He said after a while of thinking. "Other than that, I can't remember a thing...nope, nothing." He told me sadly.

"Cool, my name's Eve, nice to meet you!" I replied. He looked at me oddly, as if he weren't expecting that kind of reaction. I was about to say something else when someone from behind me tackled me and sent me into Alex's arms as I dropped my relic fragment. I had decided to call it that half an hour ago.

"Oops, well, excuse me!" Said a rude voice. I looked to see that it was a coffing. Who the heck was he?!

"Hey! Why did you do that?! Can't you see we're having a conversation here?!" I said in a furious tone. Did I mention I had a temper?

"Hey, that was uncalled for! You clearly saw her!" I could hear Alex standing up for me.

"Well of course we saw her. It'd be no fun if we got her attention first." Said the zubat as I glared at them.

"Oh, what's this?" Said Coffing, indicative of my relic fragment.

"Hey! That's my-" I was about to say when he picked it up.

"Hehe, sorry kiddo, we gotta take that." Said Coffing, evilly. I just stood there, looking shocked. They seemed to notice this.

"What? Not gonna try to take it back huh? Wow, I didn't expect you to be such a wimp, oh wait, yes I did. We saw you chicken out when you went to sign up at the guild, which you clearly aren't fit for." Said Zubat. His comment hitting me straight in the gut.

Alex seemed to notice my uneasiness as he was quick to jump to my defense. "Hey you two. You're annoying me. Just give it back to her will ya?" He said in a quite annoyed manner.

"Oh look, the chicken's boyfriend is standing up for her. Jeez, can't fight your own battles can you?" He said, making us both blush. I hoped Alex didn't see mine. "Yeah, sorry, but we'll just be leaving." Said the two bullies as they escaped through a beach cave.

"Ugh. Man, what is it with those two?!" Said Alex in irritation. I felt tears well up in my eyes.

"Th-that was my prized possession. It-it was the first treasure I ever found. It-it means a-a lot to me..." I said in a small voice. I was now sobbing uncontrollably. Alex must have noticed because he spoke up.

"Hey, are you all right?" He asked me in a soothing tone.

"N-n-no, they took my relic f-fragment." I said, not even looking at him.

"Hey, it's ok, that cave looks like it leads to a dead end." He said to me. "It's gonna be ok, I'll help you get it back." He said, surprising me. I looked up at him and straight into his blue eyes.

"R-really?" I said, calming down a little. "Oh, thank you so much!" I said. I was so excited that I tackled him to the ground in a big hug. I looked into his eyes again and froze. A blush crept it's way across my face. I felt like my heart skipped a beat, but not in the bad way.

"Uh, can you get off of me?" He asked me, trying and failing to hide his face, which was now tinged with pink.

"Oh! S-s-sorry." I said as I quickly got off of him. He stood up.

"Well, let's get going then." He said with a smile. 'Is this what it feels like to be in love?' I asked myself silently before following him. 'Because if it is, I...like it.' I thought again, smiling to myself as we entered the cave.

* * *

**A few miles from town, Austin's Pov:**

"Ugh, Austin, how can we be lost? The directions are right there." Said Ally in an annoyed voice.

"But the map is written in footprint ruins." I whined. "I can only read english and unknown script." I explained to her.

"Oh, well why didn't you tell me that sooner?" She asked me. "Speaking of footprint ruins, I really need to teach you that. Normally, pokemon learn that at age five." Explained Ally. I blushed, embarrassed. "Let me see." She told me as I handed the map over to her. "Well, it might help a little if you held it correctly, even though you can't read it." She frowned. "Mmm...ok, I think I know where to go now, turns out, we're only a few miles from town." She said with a sigh of relief.

"Oh, well I guess I'm just that great at navigation." I said, a little too prideful. Ally just rolled her eyes.

"Let's just go silly." She said with a smile as we started walking again.

* * *

**One hour later:**

After about an hour, we finally reached what looked to be crossroads. "Hey, there's the guild, let's go." I said before I saw a suspicious looking quadrupedal pokemon wearing a robe look around and run off. "Uh, Ally, who was that?" I asked.

"I don't know, I'm not exactly psychic." She remarked. "But it could be an outlaw, let's go check it out." Said Ally with the same level of suspicion in her voice. We managed to spot the pokemon again and followed it to a house. We had to hide behind a corner since it looked around before entering. After a few seconds of waiting, I began to head over to the entrance to the house, but Ally stopped me. "Wait Austin. Isn't walking up to the door a bit too obvious?"

I looked at her confusedly. "Well what do you suppose we should do then?" I probably shouldn't have asked considering when I did she looked towards the chimney. "Oh no..."

"Do ya wanna investigate or not?" She asked me as she began looking for a place to climb up there. Finding a ladder on the far end of the wall we had been hiding behind, she soon advanced on it and started to climb up.

"Are we seriously doing this?" I asked her, not really wanting to go along with one of her on-the-spot ideas. Don't get me wrong, she was really smart when it came to thinking things through, just...yeah, not in a hurry.

"Yep. Unless you have a better idea." She continued to climb. I quickly followed suit. Best not to argue with her. Once we made it on top of the roof, Ally looked over to the chimney on her left.

"Alright then. If we're doing this, might as well take it seriously. Now quick, into the chimney!" I almost yelled, pumping my fist into the air. Ally just gave me an unamused look.

"Really?" Was all she said before we ran at the chimney and jumped in. We were through in less than five seconds and were more or less covered in soot. Luckily, I landed on my feet.

Immediately upon landing, I took out my badge, flashed it out and yelled. "Freeze!" There was someone in the room at the time who subsequently jumped in surprise as soon as I yelled. I assumed it was the person we had seen outside because there was a robe hanging by the door.

"Ok, I'm taking you off confrontation duty..." Ally remarked as she pushed herself off the dirty bottom of the fireplace.

"Ok, w-who are you? W-what do you want?" The pokemon, female by the voice, asked us nervously. "Wait a minute...why did you just jump down my chimney?"

Ally just froze at the sound of the pokemon's voice. "Wait a minute, hold on... Your voice..." Ally seemed surprised for some reason. "Your a...a..." She didn't seem to be able to finish. "Mom?!"

Wait a minute, what?! The pokemon came a bit closer and examined Ally. "Ally?!" She took a step back. "Just what are you doing jumping down chimneys?!" She asked, almost scolded, the now very confused Ally, before swiftly waving her paw towards us.

All of the soot that had gathered on our fur from the fall instantly spread out away from our bodies and went straight back up through the chimney, leaving us completely clean. "What the?! How did?! Huh?!" I asked as I looked myself over in surprise.

Ally's mom sighed. "I was hoping you wouldn't find me this early." She looked at me oddly. "Rather, I didn't expect it either." She looked over at Ally with a soft expression. "Hello my baby." She said in a very motherly voice as Ally ran and gave her a huge hug, crying tears of joy the entire time. This gave me time to acknowledge her appearance. She was mostly pink and white in coloration, with light blue eyes. She had ribbons and bows attached to her body that were a pattern of these colors. One of the bows was attached to her right ear, which was fluffy and big. I think Ally called her a sylveon?

"Hello miss um...Grace." I greeted, thankfully remembering Ally's last name from when she signed our rescue team application form. Thank you ironic photographic memory!

"Call me Ella." She suggested. I shook her paw. Ally had stepped back after a while, although I saw she was a bit reluctant to.

"I'm Austin." I introduced myself as I put my badge away. "Nice to meet you."

She just laughed. "I know who you are. Who do you think sent you guys that letter?" She asked us, catching us off guard.

"You sent the letter?" I asked. Man this was confusing. Ally said both of her parents were dead. Apparently she was wrong, and her mom was actually watching her.

"But of course." She replied, as if it weren't obvious. "I did worry about Ally, all the time actually. It helped that someone was there to keep her company, but not as much as I would've liked, so I sent the letter." She explained. "I trust you found the item I told you about?" She asked me. I pulled out the strange orb.

"Yeah, but what was with that weird dungeon?" I asked her, still confuse by the oddity of it all.

"What, why magic of course." She said with a smile, not even cushioning the blow. Then again, she didn't do that in the letter either... "My husband and I put a spell on it long ago, just ask Lucario." She explained, looking towards Ally. "Ally has magic as well. It may not look like it, but that's because we placed a seal on her powers a long time ago. She explained. "That orb, in fact, is the key to breaking the seal."

"Mmm... But I don't get it. If I've had magic all this time, why hide it?" I asked her.

"Well... It's complicated. We'll save the explanation for another time. For now, you two should come in. You must be exhausted from that long journey."

"Right... Well this certainly beats my record on the weird scale. I'm a pokemon that used to be human, but magic being real is on a whole different level." I said to her.

"Human? Really?" She asked me, her eyes going wide in surprise.

"Oh, well I used to be human." I explained. She seemed to study me for some odd reason before laughing.

"Well, it seems as though I'm not the only one who has surprises." She smiled.

"Mom, is dad here too?" Asked Ally hopefully.

"Hmm, oh yes, I suppose he will want to see you too." She laughed. "Please, make yourselves at home."

* * *

**Beach Cave, Alex's POV:**

When we first entered the cave, it was wet, which at least seemed characteristically correct. Everything else Eve had told me about dungeons made little sense.

We had been traveling for a while, defeating enemy pokemon as we went (which by the way seem to show up out of nowhere), when we came to some stairs. "Man, you really weren't kidding when you said there were going to be stairs. What the heck is up with this place?" I asked Eve. She just smiled at me. She was pretty cute the way she smiled like that all the time.

Apparently I had been spending too much time in my thoughts. When we reached the next floor, I was zoned out and immediately got slapped in the face by a mud slap attack and fell into the water. By the time I had gotten out, Eve had defeated the attacker and was laughing hard. "You've done this before haven't you?" I asked as we found more stairs and continued on.

"Yep, I was in my sister's rescue team before and I picked up a few things." She explained to me. "A rescue team basically helps others in need." She continued. I nodded in understanding. Well at least that made sense. Apparently, this was a short dungeon because we were already on the third floor.

"I think I spot the stairs." I said as we approached them. The problem was that a shellos was right next to them. "Hold on." I said, getting an idea. I then used my vines to grab the shellos before it could react and threw it into the water. "Yeah! Take that shellos!" I yelled triumphantly. I really didn't appreciate being thrown into the water. Eve just laughed. We quickly ran up the stairs.

When we reached the fifth floor, we noticed that it was a dead end where Coffing plus Zubat equals trapped. Eve stepped up to them, their backs turned.

"H-hey." She spoke up. They turned around.

"Well if it isn't the chicken!" Stated Coffing. Eve hesitated and looked back, but I urged her onward.

"G-give me back what you stole, it's my personal treasure and it means a lot to me." I commanded.

"Woohoo, hold on there. If you want it so badly, come take it. If not, we could always sell it. I bet something as ancient looking as this would sell great on the black market."

That looked like it ticked Eve off. Uh-oh... "Fine, you want a fight?! Then here you go! You asked for it buddy!" She shouted as she shot what looked like a shadow ball at him. I jumped in and fired an energy ball straight at Zubat who was caught off guard and was sent crashing into the wall. He was out like a light. Wow, all bark and no bite. I thought to myself.

And it was true, by the time I looked over at Eve, she had already knocked Coffing flat against the floor. "What?!" Eve yelled at his unconscious form.

After a while, they woke up. "Ugh, fine, just take it!" Said Coffing before he threw the relic fragment on the floor. "This was a fluke! Remember that. Wimps like you could never beat us in a real fight." Said Zubat as they left in a hurry. I thought I almost heard one of them whimper in the distance, but then again it could've just been me. And they call us wimps?

Eve picked it up. "Thank you Alex! I got it back because of you!" She thanked me. I shook my head at her comment.

"Eve, as much as you want to thank me, I'm pretty sure you would've been able to beat them to a pulp without me. Eheheh." Remind me never to make her mad.

Back at the beach, Eve explained to me what the relic fragment was. "This is the relic fragment." She explained. "I don't really know much to say about it, but I just like the pattern." She said, indicative of the strange inscription on the stone. "I want to someday figure out what this stone is for. That's one of the reasons why I want to join Wigglytuff's guild and form an exploration team." She stated. "I've always loved tales of treasure and legends. Making historic discoveries would be so great! I was just too cowardly when I went to form a team and I couldn't do it... I guess I just couldn't do it alone." She smiled weekly.

"Um...listen Alex, if it's not too much of a bother, I know from experience that you have nowhere to go, so, will you form a team with me?" She asked me, surprising me a little.

"Well um...ok, you have a point. I don't have anywhere to go..." I looked at the pitiful expression she was giving me and sighed. "...and you're my friend, so I guess I will." I said while smiling.

Eve looked extremely excited to hear that. "Really? Thank you!" She said ecstatically, flashing me one of her amazing smiles. "Oh, and thanks again for being my friend and helping me get my fragment back." She said as she picked up the said rock. "Let's become the greatest exploration team this world's ever known!" She said with an excited smile. I nodded and we left for the guild.


	2. Eve's New Friend

**_ Ch.2: Wizard?!  _ **

 

 

* * *

 

 

** Grace Family House, Austin's POV:  **

As soon as Ella, Ally's Mom, welcomed us in, she told us to sit down and went into another room to look for Ally's father, Shard. The inside of the house was decorated with all kinds of flowers that I had no hope of ever knowing the names of. Ribbons matching the ones that seemed to be part of Ella's body were hanging in various locations around what I guessed was the living room. Ally and I went over to a couch and sat down. "Austin, this is so great! We found my parents!" Said Ally as she hugged me tightly. "Thank you so much for helping me! I don't think I would have ever seen them again if it weren't for you." She said, tears of joy in her eyes and a radiant smile upon her face. I hugged her back.

"Hey, I'd do anything for you Alls." I said with a smile. Ally then kissed me.

"I love you so much!" Said Ally as she nuzzled her face into my chest. I sat there holding Ally in that position for a few minutes before Ally's Mom came back into the room.

"Oh, you too look so cute together!" Said Ally's Mom as she came back into the room followed by a glaceon who I assumed was Ally's father.

"Ally?" Asked Shard in a sort of skeptical manor. Ally and I separated and she ran over and hugged him, nearly knocking him over.

"Yeah, it's me." She managed to say before breaking into tears. "I m-missed you guys s-so much." She said, shedding tears of relief.

"I know, I know. We're so sorry sweat heart. We only left so we could protect you." Said Shard to his daughter after recovering from his shock. They continued like that for a few minutes before they separated and Ally and I returned to our position.

"What is it you had to protect her from exactly?" I asked worriedly while hugging Ally tighter. Ella and Shard just sighed.

"His name is Shade. He's been after Ally ever since she was born. I'm afraid he won't stop until he has gotten rid of her." Explained Shard. I felt Ally shiver as she moved in closer to me. I held her paw comfortingly.

"Do you have any idea why he would want to do this?" I asked them out of curiosity.

"We don't really know at the moment. He's been after us for a while before we ever had Ally. He wasn't always like this though. In fact, he and I used to be good friends." Explained Shard.

"Wait. Does he wear a black robe?" I asked. They nodded. "And does he speak in an incredibly creepy voice?" I asked again.

"Exactly." Replied Ella. "How did you know?" She asked me.

"We've met him before. I've never been so happy to see Pelliper in my life." Said Ally, answering for me. Ally's parents exchanged looks of worry.

"It worries me how fast he was able to find you." Said Ella. "By the way, Ally, where's your sister?" She asked worriedly.

"We were trying to find her, in the note she said she was going to Wigglytuff's Guild." Explained Ally, taking the said parchment out of our treasure bag.

"Oh Wigglytuff's Guild? That's right near here." Said Shard. "You should go find her, we can continue talking about this later. You can never be too careful with Shade around and she should really know about this too." He continued.

"We didn't see her when we got here and the guild is at the crossroads. We left right after she did so she should already be here." I explained in a confused tone.

Ella and Shard exchanged a look. "I do suppose it is a little late. Why don't you stay here until tomorrow and give Eve time to get there? Knowing her, she's probably somewhere around town." Offered Ella. We agreed and Ally's parents showed us to the guest room and we decided to get a little sleep. Ally and I then laid down on a bed and curled up together like we usually do, I put my arms protectively around Ally's waist and she nuzzled her face into my chest. We then drifted off to sleep, oblivious to Ella and Shard smiling at us in the doorway.

 

 

* * *

 

** Wigglytuff's Guild, Alex's POV:  **

After a while of walking from the beach, we climbed a huge set of stairs that led to a weird looking tent shaped like a Wigglytuff's head. Their was a gate down at what looked like the entrance and a brittle looking wooden grate directly in front of the entrance. Totem poles and torches flanked the tent on both sides casting strange shadows outwards and away from it. Overall, I'd say it was a pretty intimidating scene.

"Alright, here's Wigglytuff's Guild." Said Eve as we approached the tent. After a quick glance at the guild, Eve noticeably shivered. "Um, Alex? Doesn't this place just look a little...odd?" Asked Eve in a nervous tone.

"Odd? Well I have to say it does look a bit intimidating but nothing seems off about it." I replied, confusion clear in my voice. In response to that, Eve started to back away from the guild.

"You know what? Maybe this wasn't such a good idea in the first place." Said Eve nervously before she bolted away from the place, only to be caught by the tail by me.

"Oww! Hey! What was that for!" Said Eve with a pained expression on her face and tears in her eyes. I just sighed and smiled at her awkwardly.

"I'm sorry Eve but you're not really making any sense. What are you so afraid of?" I asked her calmly, a hint of guilt displayed on my face.

"I...I just...I don't really know. I think I'm just a little afraid to fail. I'm not really used to being alone." Said Eve in a depressed voice.

"Hey. What are you talking about? You're not alone. You've got me, remember? You've got the best friend you could ever have right here." I said with a laugh while pointing at myself. It sounded a little arrogant, but judging from the smile that had appeared on Eve's face, what I had said was effective. "You're not going to fail because I won't let you. Don't underestimate yourself. Okay?" I continued. Eve's smile widened as she nearly knocked me down with a hug to the neck. She seemed to be crying, which would explain why I felt my back become wet with tears. After a while, she pulled away and looked me in the eyes, a smile upon her face.

"Thank you." She said sweetly before kissing me on the cheek. I immediately blushed.

"W-what was that for?" I asked in an embarrassed tone.

She just smirked at me. "Guess you'll have to figure that out for yourself." She replied in a smug sounding voice before she winked at me and broke the hug. She then walked up to the grate, leaving me looking shocked.

My face felt warm. What just happened? I shook it off after a few seconds and walked over to her. Eve stepped onto the grate. After a few seconds, a voice could be heard from below the grate. "Pokémon detected, pokémon detected!" Said the voice. I saw Eve tense so I grabbed her paw.

"Hey. It's ok." I told her calmly. She just smiled and relaxed a little. Suddenly, another voice could be heard.

"Who's footprint? Who's footprint Diglet?" Asked voice two in an extremely loud voice. "The footprint is Eevee's, the footprint is Eevee's!" Said voice one, who's name I now assumed was Diglet. "Um...ok, you may enter. There's someone else with you. Get them to stand on the grate." Said voice two, seemingly from behind the gated entrance.

I assumed he meant me so I stepped onto the grate for evaluation, or whatever they called it. "Pokémon detected, pokémon detected. The footprint is...the footprint is...um..." Said Diglet in a confused sounding voice. "What? What is the footprint Diglet? Come on, you can't tell me ya don't know." Said voice two. "I don't know ok." Shouted Diglet. "What?! Seriously Diglet? Sentry duty is supposed to be your thing isn't it? What do you mean you don't know?" Asked voice two. "I don't know what I don't know!" Replied Diglet.

"What's going on? Are they arguing?" Asked Eve. I just shrugged. This was getting on my nerves. I decided to just tell them my species.

"Would you stop arguing? I'm a snivy for crying out loud." I practically shouted down the whole.

"What? Oh, the footprint is Snivy's, the footprint is Snivy's." Said Diglet lamely. "Guess you don't see very many snivy around these parts. Ok, you may enter." He continued before the gate at the entrance opened, signifying that we were aloud to enter.

"Great we're aloud in!" Said Eve with a smile. "Let's go." She continued as she walked in the entrance. I followed soon after.

Inside the tent, it appeared that the guild went underground judging from the ladder that led there. "Oh, um Alex. Can you go down first? I'm really not good with ladders, being quadrupedal and all. It would be easier for me if I fell to have someone to catch me." Said Eve, sounding embarrassed.

"Ok." I replied before climbing down the ladder through the small whole, careful so that my tail didn't get in my way. At the bottom of the ladder, I stepped off onto a grassy floor.

/How is that even possible?/ I thought before I called for Eve to come down. She did so slowly, but I could tell she was having trouble. She managed however and was soon down on the floor beside me. "You gonna be ok always having to climb up and down that?" I asked her.

"I'll get used to it. Don't worry." She assured me. We then looked into the room we had dropped down into. There were pokémon of many kinds doing various things around the place. Eve and I walked to the center of the room. "I wonder if all of these pokémon are exploration teams?" Said Eve as she looked on in awe. Suddenly, a bird looking pokémon came up from another ladder that seemed to go down to another level. He walked up to us.

"Excuse me. Are you two the ones who just came in?" Asked the pokémon.

"Um, yes, yes we are. And you are?" I asked out of curiosity.

"I am Chatot, the head of intelligence around the guild and also the guildmaster's right-hand pokémon. Now shoo. Leave the premises. We don't have time for sales people or silly surveys." Said Chatot in a quite serious yet unprofessional tone.

"What? Oh, no we aren't here for any of that. We came here to form an exploration team." Said Eve enthusiastically. Chatot just looked at us, shocked. He then turned around and started mumbling to himself.

"Uh Chatot? You ok over there?" I asked after a while of this.

Chatot quickly turned around. "Huh, oh. Quite yes, it's just that we don't usually have young pokémon come through here aspiring to become apprentices. Usually they just run off or something." Replied Chatot nervously although I had overheard most of what he said about the rigorous training they had here, which I seriously doubted. Eve just winced at that statement. "Anyway, if you two will follow me, I must take you to the guildmaster to get you signed up." Said Chatot as he walked, or rather hopped off, only to cone back since we didn't follow. "Anything wrong here? Come along now~." Said Chatot in a rhythmic tone. We then followed him down the second ladder. Eve seemed to have an easier time going down this one. I guessed that she was getting used to it.

Chatot led us to a door with a Wigglytuff like emblem carved into it. Eve immediately ran up to a window excitedly. "Wow. We're two levels down but you can still see the sun!" Said Eve enthusiastically. This seemed to annoy Chatot.

"Oh hush now! The guild was built into the side of a cliff so of course you would be able to see outside." Explained Chatot. Chatot then knocked on the door. "Hello? Guildmaster? I'm coming in." Said Chatot before he turned back to us. "Now let me be clear. Never should you even think about being discourteous to our guildmaster." Said Chatot before he opened the door and ushered us inside.

When we walked into the room, we saw a big pink pokémon standing with it's back to us. "Hello Guildmaster, I have here a few pokémon who have requested audience with you." Said Chatot calmly, only to be answered by what I thought to be snores. Chatot must've heard it too by the look on his face. "Err, Guildmaster...hello?" Continued Chatot. After Chatot, again, received no response, he walked up to the Guildmaster and proceeded to try to awaken him. Suddenly, without warning, the Guildmaster turned around quickly and used what I presumed to be the move hypervoice directly in Chatot's face which surprisingly knocked him into the wall behind us.

"Hiya, I'm Wigglytuff, the Guildmaster of this guild. You want to become apprentices? Then let's do it. It's always fun to have new friendly friends around isn' it Chatot?" Said Wigglytuff at a rapid pace. After a while with no answer from Chatot, Wigglytuff spoke again.

"Chatot?" He asked again before noticing Chatot was on the floor behind us. "Chatot, why are you sleeping? We have new friends to recruit." Continued the Guildmaster, his smile never leaving his face. Eve giggled beside me while I tried to conceal a laugh. Chatot, who I had assumed was knocked unconscious, suddenly spoke up.

"Ugh, huh? Oh, my apologies Guildmaster, I um...must have dosed off?" Said Chatot with a sigh, sounding completely unsure as he was picking himself off of the ground.

"Anyway, so do you two want to form a team together?" Asked Wigglytuff as if nothing had even happened. We both nodded. "Great! Friends should always stick together. Now just one more thing. What will your team name be?" Asked Wigglytuff.

Eve pondered this for a moment before she spoke up. "Oh ok, that's easy. We'll call it Team Eviolite!" Said Eve with a smile. Wigglytuff seemed to be trying to remember something.

"Hmm, that sounds familiar. Chatot, do you remember the name Eviolite? He asked Chatot.

"Hmm? Oh, yes. Team Eviolite is the name of the rescue team that saved the world from that meteor. It was all over the news paper. Um...the members were named...Austin and Ally." Confirmed Chatot.

What? A meteor? What's with this world? "Yeah, that's my sister and her boyfriend. I used to be in their team before coming here." She explained. Chatot looked shocked. Wigglytuff just smiled.

"Great! It's great to learn things about our friends before we recruit them. Anyway, let's get you registered!" Said Wigglytuff before he proceeded to write something down and shouted. "Yoom-tah! Ok your team is now registered." He continued. He then went to look for something. After a few seconds, he returned with a small golden treasure box. "Here is your exploration team starter kit. Go ahead and look inside friendly friends!" Said Wigglytuff with a huge smile.

We proceeded to open the box. Inside was a pink bow, an interesting looking scarf, a rolled up map, a small satchel-like bag, and what looked like a badge. "What are these?" I asked him. "Right there is the treasure bag, you can use that to store any necessary items you buy or find in a dungeon. You also have your treasure map, and your official exploration team badge. Now, the scarf and bow? Those are very special rare items. The pink bow can increase all of your stats and the quick scarf can help increase your speed." Explained Wigglytuff. I then took out the scarf and proceeded to put it around my neck. Eve then took the flower off of her ear and tried to put on the bow only to drop it on the floor. I guess having no fingers would be a problem there.

I proceeded to pick up the bow. "May I?" I asked, trying to help her.

"Huh? Oh, yes. Thank you." Said Eve as she blushed out of embarrassment. After taking a minute to figure out how the bow worked, I gently put the bow where Eve's flower used to be. "How do I look?" Asked Eve nervously. I stood there a moment, examining her. She really was cute. The way her lush, brown fur shone in the light, always looking perfectly groomed. She couldn't seem to keep her fluffy tail still, which made me smile a bit. I loved the way the white fur that puffed out around her neck looked like a cloud floating through the sky. Her eyes were a brilliant shade of pink that perfectly matched the bow.

"You look beautiful." I said with a smile.

She just struck a pose. "Really? Thanks. I've never really thought of myself that way." She said shyly. Wigglytuff then spoke up.

"Anyway, it's getting a little late. Chatot, show our new friends to their room." Said Wigglytuff kindly. Chatot the led us out of the Guildmaster's chamber and down a hallway to the left. We stopped at a door at the end of the hallway.

"This will be where you will be living as you train as apprentices here." Explained Chatot as he wrote our team name on the door.

"Wait, a boy and a girl in the same room?" I asked him nervously.

"Hmm? But of course. The guild doesn't have enough rooms to suit each member after all. Is that going to be a problem?" Asked Chatot with a suspicious look in his eyes.

"Huh? Oh o-of course n-not." We both said simultaneously, blushes upon our faces. Chatot continued to look at us accusingly for a moment before opening the door and escorting us inside. Inside the room, there were three straw beds on the floor and a window overlooking the ocean.

"Morning briefing and breakfast are early in the morning so make sure to get some sleep." Warned Chatot before he left us to ourselves.

"Oh this is so great! I'm finally a member of Wigglytuff's guild!" Exclaimed Eve as she jumped up and down with excitement. "Thank you so much for forming a team with me." She continued as she proceeded to give me a hug. After a while, she let go. "We should get some sleep." She suggested and we both laid down in our respective beds. Eve went to sleep almost instantly but I laid there and thought for a moment.

Ok, so now I am an apprentice at the guild. I love being friends with Eve, but how did I end up on that beach? Did I wash up from the waves somehow? That still wouldn't explain how I fell into the water, or even turned into a pokémon. Is there a reason I'm supposed to be here? Am I here to help Eve, or am I supposed to do something else? I...I guess I can think about this some more later. For now I should just enjoy being friends with Eve.

 

 

* * *

 

** Two hours later, Eve's POV:  **

About two hours after we had gone to bed, it had started to storm and I had woken up due to the thunder. I never told anyone, but I was really scared of thunderstorms. I couldn't get back to sleep, nearly jumping up every time the thunder crashed. After a while, Alex seemed to notice this. The storm must have woken him up as well. "Eve? You're still awake? It's the middle of the night." He said to me in concern. "You ok?" He continued. I was too nervous to tell him so I lied.

"N-no I-I'm ok." I replied before turning over, facing away from him.

"Eve. Are you afraid of thunder?" He asked me in a calm but serious tone.

"W-what, me? O-of course I-I'm not. W-what kind o-of person is s-scared of th-thunder? Definitely n-not me!" I said, unable to stop stuttering. I turned over again while continuing to shiver.

"Eve." He said to me calmly. I looked back over at him to see a worried expression on his face. I guess I just caved after that.

"Ok fine. I'm scared of thunder. I know it's crazy." I said feeling embarrassed just as the thunder crashed again and I curled up in fear.

I heard Alex sigh. "Eve, it's not crazy. It's natural to be scared of that. It's not going to hurt you though." He replied to me. I just stared at him. He must have seen how scared I was because he looked at me compassionately and sighed. "Eve. Why don't you come over here and sleep next to me?" He asked me. I was shocked.

"W-w-what?! Um...n-no that's ok." I told him.

"Eve...it's ok. Come on." He said kindly while patting a space beside him. I just stared at him with a huge blush upon my face.

"O...ok." I told him shyly before I walked over to him and laid down right next to him. There wasn't really enough room to keep apart so my side rubbed up against him, making me blush even deeper. /He's so warm./ I thought before he wrapped his arms around my waist. I looked up at him.

"You ok now?" He asked me calmly. I just rested my head under his neck and made a content sound in response.

"Thank you." I said with a smile before I closed my eyes.

"You'll always be safe with me." Said Alex gently before I finally fell asleep.

 

 

* * *

 

** Outside Grace family house, 10:00pm, Austin's POV:  **

After I made sure Ally had fallen asleep, I snuck out of her parents' house. There was something I had been meaning to do since I got here, so I carefully left for the cross-roads. When I got there, I had arrived at a decently sized, vibrant looking tree. After thinking for a while, I came up with a decent idea, though it was probably not one of the most conventional methods. I readied my tail for an iron tail attack. I never understood why, but focusing my energy into my tail seemed to come more naturally than charging up an electric type attack. After a few seconds, my tail began to glow a bright white and I began my work. Being as careful as I could, I slowly began to use my tail to carve something into the tree. It took me a while with how much energy it was taking me to keep a constant iron tail and how careful I was so as to not make any imperfections. About a half hour later, I had finally finished. What I had carved was a surprise for Ally. It was a heart carved into the tree with the words Austin + Ally in the center. It did sound a little cliché, but it was a classic romantic gesture. I stood there admiring it for a while before it suddenly lit up with a strange light for a few seconds, causing me to stare at it in confusion.

"Hmm, so it seams my suspicions are confirmed." Said a voice from behind me. I turned around, startled by the whoever snuck up behind me. I was relieved to find that it was Ella who had said that. "Oh, I'm quite sorry I startled you. Guess I shouldn't have spoken so suddenly." She continued with a laugh.

"What are you doing here?" I asked her out of curiosity.

"Huh? Oh, I was going out for a bit to get some fresh air when I saw you leave, so I decided to follow you. It took me a while to figure out what you were doing, but when I did, I couldn't help but watch. What you were doing is actually an early childhood magic exercise. It's how us parent wizards tell which of our children if any inherited magic from us. It's also how we figured out that Eve did not inherit any magic from us, which is quite rare I must add, though it usually involves a simpler emotional symbol. If the symbol lights up, then magic is present in the child." She explained to me.

"What does this have to with me then?" I asked her, confused.

"It lit up didn't it?" She asked me, to which I nodded. "Then that means magic is present in you. Very powerful magic as it turns out. When you do it on a tree, it's basically an advanced charm, even more so if a symbol of love is used. It's supposed to help the tree continue to grow. If not done correctly, it would have become unstable and exploded, which is never a pretty site. Even I can barely do it." Ella continued.

I walked up to her. "How is it possible that I was able to do it? I may not have my memory, but I do know that magic doesn't exist where I come from." I explained to her. This made her think for a minute.

"Hmm...well, there is a way you could have developed it. It's actually how my husband developed magic. It involves a quite strong emotional connection with an inherent wizard, which you seem to have with Ally. You along with Shard would be classified as transent wizards. A transent wizard is someone who receives magic through a strong emotional connection with an inherent wizard. It's not a very common occurrence, but wizards of your kind are often extremely powerful, which would explain how you pulled off that quite advanced charm." She explained. "Shade will definitely be more hesitant once he realizes what you are, but he'll eventually make another appearance. I'm still surprised that you confronted him before. He rarely shows himself in public." She continued.

"That is an issue for another time though. I would actually like to talk to you about Ally." She said, changing the subject.

"What about her?" I asked confusedly.

"Well, I just wanted to know how my daughter's boyfriend felt about her. I do know you love her, of course, but I just want to hear what you think about her you know? As a mother, I'm naturally curious about anything having to do with my children." She explained.

"Oh. Well, where do I start? I mean, she's cute, beautiful, smart, kind, and extremely loyal. I can proudly say that if she hadn't found me in the forest on that random day, I wouldn't be alive right now. I had amnesia, and was completely ignorant of how to survive in this world, being that I was originally a human. I owe her my life. She's taught me so much, but I still can't help but worry about her sometimes. I mean, she was extremely hurt when I was nearly forced to leave her and return to my world and I just don't think she's completely over it. She just doesn't mention it anymore. In addition to that, she has asthma. Every time we go into a dungeon or a place that has a lot of dust or sand blowing around I'm worried that she's going to have another asthma attack and I won't know what to do." I told her, half pouring out my heart about anything having to do with Ally.

"Hmm...you really do care about her. I wouldn't be surprised if you sacrificed yourself to save her life. You're a lot like Shade, before he went bad of course. He's also a transent wizard. He went bad when the love of his life went missing. They were an extremely lovely couple. In fact, I don't thing there was a day I saw them apart before Sarah disappeared. He blamed my husband for her disappearance and that's one of the major reasons why he's after our family." She told me. I don't know why, but I felt like she was hiding something.

"What are the other reasons?" I asked her. Ella looked a little nervous for a second when I said that.

"That's a matter for another time I'm afraid. We should get back to the house now, you're going to need to sleep if you're going to find Eve tomorrow and I don't think you want to worry Ally, do you? Just remember, when the time comes, you have my blessing." She said with a wink before she turned around and motioned for me to follow.

Her blessing? Wow, I wasn't planning on proposing to Ally anytime soon, but I guess getting her mother's blessing is a good thing. Right?

When we got back, I was surprised to see that Ally was awake when I walked into the guest room. "So where were you this late at night huh?" She asked me suspiciously.

"Huh? Oh I just went out to get some fresh air. Your mom followed me and we talked for a minute." I explained to her. I didn't tell her about my magic because she would probably ask how I figured that out and the heart was a surprise for the next day. She looked at me suspiciously for a minute before she let it go.

"Oh, ok. I was just worried about you, that's all." She replied. That made me feel a bit guilty. I sighed before I walked over to her and hugged her.

"It's ok. I'm sorry. I should've told you where I was going." I told her calmly with a hint of remorse in my voice. She smirked at me.

"I forgive you." She said jokingly before she kissed me.

"Come on, we should get some sleep. We need to find your sister tomorrow." I said with a laugh.

 

 

* * *

 

** The next morning, Alex's POV:  **

"Hey! Up and at 'em, it's morning!" Shouted an extremely loud voice, immediately waking us up. Unfortunately, waking up seemed to be a bad idea considering the guy's voice was deafening. I sensed he was going to yell again so I got up quickly.

"Alright, alright we're up, ugh." I stated with my hand on my head. As it turns out, waking up from an extremely loud voice is not good on the ears, though I didn't know exactly where they were. Eve was on the floor with her paws covering both of her big ears.

"Does he have to yell? Talk about exploding my ear drums." Said Eve in pain. I just put my hand on her back as if to say, "I know how you feel". The guy, who I now saw was Loudred, was standing in our doorway looking at us in an annoyed looking fashion.

"Great. Now why don't you two love birds get to the morning cheers before you're late?!" He asked us commandingly , making us both blush.

"We're not a couple." I stated, trying to explain it to him, but he didn't look too convinced given we were sleeping together.

"Riiiight. Anyway, hurry up. I'm not gonna be late because you two overslept and trust me, you don't either." He continued before walking out the door.

Eve and I both got up. "What was he talking about? Morning cheers?" Asked Eve sleepily.

"We signed up for the guild yesterday. Remember?" I asked her. She suddenly became more alert.

"Wait a minute, that means we totally overslept! Come on, we can't be late on the first day!" She said urgently before we ran out of the room. When we got to the main room, everyone seemed to be lined up in attendance, well, except for us. We quickly ran to our spots. Eve ended up right behind me.

"You're late rookies!" Shouted Loudred. "Oh be quite, hasn't anyone ever told you you have a ridiculously loud voice?" Scolded Chatot. Loudred just mumbled under his breath.

"Ok, so I see that everyone is in attendance?" Said Chatot examining the crowd. "Ok time to start the morning cheers. Guildmaster, everyone is in attendance." Said Chatot, apparently cueing the Wigglytuff to come out of his chamber. Suddenly, the door to the guildmaster's chamber opened and he stepped out. "Alright Guildmaster, it's time to brief the apprentices." Said Chatot in a seemingly over-rehearsed tone, only to be answered by Wigglytuff's quite loud snoring. Everyone laughed in response to this. I assumed that this had happened before. I heard whispers from some of the other apprentices.

"Who couldn't see that coming?" Whispered someone. "Uh, is anyone else creeped out by his open eyes?" Said someone else.

"Um...ok. Thank you Guildmaster for your um...words of wisdom. Ok everyone, time for the cheers." Stated Chatot after getting over that awkward moment. Eve and I didn't know the cheers so we just quietly listened. "One, don't shirk work! Two, run away and pay! Three, smiles go for miles!" Chanted the entire guild as we tried to memorize the words. "Ok apprentices, time to get to work!" Said Chatot as they cheered again and left to do their assigned jobs. Eve then turned to me.

"So, what do you think we should do?" She asked me, tilting her head in confusion. I was about to respond before the voice of Diglet interrupted me. Strangely, the room went quiet.

"Wait, what are your names? Austin and Ally? Wait a minute. What!?" Said Diglet sounding surprised. Everybody left their stations and went up to the first floor. Eve just looked at me with a shocked expression.

"Come on!" She said with a smile as we rushed up the ladder. When we got to the first floor, everyone seemed to be crowded around two pokémon at the center of the room. One of them was a pikachu carrying what looked to be a larger version of our treasure bag. I didn't really know pikachu could have blue eyes, although neither did I think that about a Snivy and look at what I am. Standing right next to him was an eevee that looked exactly like Eve in every way, except for the eyes which were emerald green.

"Ok everyone, back away from our guests. We do not need you to crowd around them like crazed fans. It's unbecoming." Said Chatot trying to settle everyone down. "So Austin, Ally. What brings you two here to our guild?" Asked Chatot. The Eevee, who I now recognized as Eve's twin sister, spoke up.

"We came to see my sister Eve. Is she here?" She answered. Everyone just went quiet and stared back at us before making room for us to see them. Eve ran up and nearly tackled Ally to the ground in a huge hug, laughing all the way.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, still giggling.

"Coming to join your team of course. What, did you think we'd actually let you leave without us?" Asked Ally in a teasing manner. The guild members went back to there respective jobs. I walked up to them just as they let go. Austin and Ally just looked at me.

"Hey Austin, Ally, this is Alex. He's my best friend and partner." Said Eve, introducing us. "Austin, you and Alex have something in common. Alex used to be human as well." She continued. The pikachu, who I now knew to be Austin, looked at me with a shocked expression.

"Wait, you used to be human too?" He asked me to which I nodded.

"Yeah, Eve's already told me about you being human at one point. It's great to have someone with the same experience I guess." I said in response while shaking his paw.

Chatot suddenly cut in. "So you two plan on joining our new apprentices?" He asked curiously. They both nodded. "Ok, well I will inform the Guildmaster on this. In the meantime, we should get you guys a mission. Follow me please." Said Chatot as he went to stand next to a board over to the left side of the room. We soon followed. "It's a good thing you two showed up today. This makes things a lot easier to explain." Said Chatot pointedly at Austin and Ally. "Ok, so this is the job request board. Pokémon from all over leave requests for our guild and they are placed here for our exploration teams to choose as missions. Let me see." Said Chatot as he was looking through the missions that were pinned on the board. "Hmm, this one looks like it will be fine." Said Chatot as he took a piece of paper off of the board and proceeded to hand it to me. We all looked at it. Eve started to read over my shoulder.

"Hello dear readers, my name is Spoink. I have left this request because I need help. A thief has run off with my most prized possession, my pear. I have heard though, that my pearl has been spotted on a rocky bluff, but this bluff is reported to be extremely unsafe as it is a treacherous mystery dungeon. Please kind readers, will you be so kind as to go get my pear? -From Spoink."

When Eve stopped reading, she spoke up. "Wait. We're just going to go fetch an item that somebody dropped? Can't we do something a little more exciting, like discovering a new location or exploring some unknown dungeon?" She questioned, complaining.

"Oh hush now! As a normal rank team, you have to start from the bottom. Besides, being in an exploration team isn't just about exploring new places, it's also about helping those in need. You, Austin and Ally should know that better than anyone." Scolded Chatot. "Now off you go. I'll have to go talk to the Guildmaster about your new apprentices so I can get you badges. Oh, and Eve, here is your badge. The Guildmaster fan be so forgetful sometimes." Said Chatot while shaking his head and heading down the latter.

Eve looked to be sulking about the mission so I patted her back softly. "It's ok Eve. Of course we have to start off at the bottom. We are a new team." I told her while giving her a smile. She calmed down soon after. "Anyway, it's nice to meet you two." I said to Austin and Ally.

"You too." They said back. "Oh, Eve, I have something to tell you. Mom and Dad are alive. They're actually here in town." Said Ally in excitement.

"What!? They are? How?" Asked Eve with the same level of excitement.

"Austin, I'm gonna go explain everything to Eve, you can talk to Alex for a minute." Said Ally before she and Eve went over to the other side of the room. I just smiled.

"Man, she is so cute." I said out loud before I threw my hands in front of my mouth. Austin just stared at me with a smile. "Did I just say that out loud?" I asked him rhetorically. He just laughed.

"Yep, you kind of did." He replied. "Let me guess. You like Eve don't you?" He asked me, still laughing. I blushed.

"Is it that obvious?" I asked him.

"Yeah pretty much. If your words didn't make it obvious then it's the way you look at and behave around her." He replied.

"Please don't tell her." I pleaded.

"Don't worry dude, that's your job." He said with a laugh.

"Um, any chance you could give me advice? She confuses me sometimes." I asked him. He just laughed.

"My advice would be to keep doing whatever you've been doing because she seems to be really close to you already. I don't really know what else to tell you with the way Eve is." Said Austin while rubbing the back of his neck. "She isn't really outward with her emotions. We didn't even know she was lonely until she told us." He explained.

"Lonely?" I asked.

"Yeah, our team is made up by two couples and I guess she just feels left out. It's good to know we don't have that problem anymore. The rescue team association wouldn't let but two of us leave since we aren't at a high enough rank yet." He continued just as Ally and Eve came back over to us.

"We should get going guys, I don't think Chatot would like it if we were late on the first mission." Said Ally before we headed out for the Drenched Bluff.


	3. Alex, Eve, and New Friendships

**_ Ch.3: Alex, Eve, and new friendships!  _ **

 

 

* * *

 

** Drenched Bluff, Alex's POV:  **

After a few hours of walking, we reached the Dungeon called Drenched Bluff due to the relatively close proximity it had to the guild. I seriously hoped that other dungeons weren't as far of a walk regardless, but I somehow knew that there was no hope in the matter.

"So this is the Drenched Bluff." I said out loud to no one in particular. The dungeon had appeared to have a dark, cave-like entrance which didn't allow for much visibility into it's depth. Scattered along the entrance to the cave was an arrangement of huge rocks that had strangely seemed to take on a sort of artistic placement despite being noticeably untouched by pokémon. In the center of the two set's of rocks was the short dirt path leading into the dark cave in which mine and Eve's first mission together was to take place. All in all, the dungeon was pretty intimidating. What is with dungeons and their seemingly unearthly atmospheres anyway?

Seeing as our other two companions, Austin and Ally, had apparently saved the world from a meteor as I've been told, I seriously doubted that they felt quite the same way about the dungeon. I looked to my right to see Eve, who had a look of anticipation mixed with a bit of fear in her eyes. I wanted to say something to comfort her, but I had a feeling that with her personality, I wouldn't be getting anywhere by doing so. I secretly found her personality quite cute, though I would probably never admit to it. She seemed to catch me observing her as she tilted her head in an effort to look confused while she noticeably chuckled.

"What are you staring at?" She giggled as she stared at me playfully. This seemed to snap me out of my um...daydream.

"Huh? O-oh um...I uh...n-nothing r-really." I stuttered, finally realizing what I was doing as I blushed in embarrassment. I really hoped she didn't notice, though part of me knew she hadn't missed it as obvious as it was. She just giggled cutely.

"No no, it's ok. I don't mind if you stare at me, especially since your reaction to my question was so hysterical." She teased with a laugh. She just stared at my completely perplexed expression that was displayed across my face. She sighed with a laugh. "Come on Alex, Austin and Ally have finished checking supplies. It's time to start the mission." She said as she proceeded to push me from behind to get me going. I snapped out of my trance-like state as we met up with the others who had wandered closer to the entrance as we had talked.

"You guys done with your little flirt fest?" Teased Austin with a chuckle. I just rolled my eyes at him.

Ally shook her head with a sigh. "This is gonna be a long mission. Let's go guys!" She spouted before she and Austin entered the cave. Eve and I exchanged a look. Oddly enough, before we could even begin to walk into the dungeon, the world became dark for a moment.

After a few seconds of the darkness, I suddenly tumbled straight onto the ground face-first. I was about to get up before Eve suddenly popped up and landed straight on top of me, forcing me to give out a gasp from the suddenly surprising, slightly heavy, fluffy pokémon that had just landed on top of me. Eve quickly got off. "Sorry!" She exclaimed with a small amount of guilt in her tone. Austin and Ally just stood off to the side, laughing like crazy at our displeasure.

"What the heck just happened?" I asked them as I got up and dusted myself off. They just laughed again.

"I guess your exploration team badges and our rescue team badges are on the same frequency. One of the more simple functions of our badges transports other team members to our side if we enter a dungeon or another floor without them, though I seriously doubt that our badges are as advanced as those made with funds from the guild." Explained Ally.

"Instant transportation is disorienting isn't it?" Laughed Austin. I just ignored him.

"What do you mean more advanced? I asked before my badge emitted a peculiar beeping sound that made me jump slightly in surprise. I quickly detached it from my scarf and looked at it. The orb-like object in the center of the badge seemed to be glowing, the same simultaneously happening to Eve's badge. I pushed the orb to find that it was actually a button. Immediately after I pressed it, a strange voice emitted from the badge.

"As owner of this badge and a member of Exploration Team Eviolite, please enter your name for confirmation that you are admitted to use it's features." Spoke the badge. The button in the middle then lit up again. I pressed it once more before a sort-of keyboard hologram emitted from a small lens on the was a bit strange, but I regardlessly proceeded to type in my name and press, or rather touch, enter. The badge just beeped for a minute, as if processing something, before the same computerized yet slightly feminine voice spoke up again.

"Exploration Team member Alex the snivy successfully recognized. Activating map and transceiver functions." It began processing again. After a short while, another hologram shot out from the badge's lens. The projection display seemed to be a map-like panel with two white beacons lighting up in one point of what I guessed to be a coordinate in the dungeon. Two other yellow beacons seemed to show up for Austin and Ally, undoubtably due to their rescue badges. The map then closed as I pressed the center button again.

"Transceiver function may be used to contact each individual member of Team Eviolite. Data analysis suggests that you have two other members on your team who lack a proper badge. Please note that you will not be able to communicate with those members until proper badges have been obtained. This function as well as others including navigator mode may be accessed through the home menu that should be displayed in front of you as I inform you of this. Welcome to Team Eviolite Alex the snivy." Concluded the badge's navigator before it, or she, went dark again. I looked over toward Eve to see that her badge had already done the same. Austin and Ally just stared at us.

"Man, I cannot wait to get my new badge." Exclaimed the both of them before we proceeded further into the dungeon.

 

 

* * *

 

** ? POV:  **

"Hey! Get back here you runt!" Came the angry shouts from my pursuers as I ran to get away from them. Here's the thing. My name is Kalamari, or Mari for short and I'm a mudkip. The reason I'm running? Well, that's pretty simple really. I'm a thief, or at least I was today. Now I know what you're thinking, what was my motive? Well, to be honest, I really don't know. As I was running, I spotted someone up ahead. A growlithe. I suddenly had an idea, it was a desperate one, but it would work.

 

 

* * *

 

** (One hour earlier, Flint's Pov)  **

"Flint honey, wake up!" Shouted my mom, an espeon, from another room in an attempt to wake me up. I knew better than to ignore her so I forced my eyes open and slowly pushed myself out of bed. As you may have heard, my name is Flint and I'm a growlithe.

"Alright mom I'm up." I shouted into the other room to avoid any further conflict in the matter. I walked into the kitchen to find her standing in the doorway.

"Good morning sweetie, would you like me to make you some breakfast?" She asked, curiosity clear in her eyes. I, however, had other plans.

"Nah, I think I'll just go take a walk today. Is that ok?" I asked.

"Of course honey, be careful now." My mom has always been a bit overprotective. She always seems to worry about me, though I couldn't blame her. She really hasn't been the same since my dad, an archanine, died. I grabbed an oran berry and left through the front door of the house.

I always loved this town, pokémon talking and going about their normal everyday business, shops open all around the square with their owners carrying on with their usual jobs and making conversation, and a wonderful beach in perfect proximity.

I headed left from my house and began my walk through the town square. As I was walking, I was greeted by nearly every shop keeper.

"Hey Flint, how's our favorite customer?" Asked the Keckleon brothers in perfect synchronization. It always creeped me out how they could do that.

"Hey Cam and Leon, I'm just going for a short walk. How's business?" I questioned casually. They just smiled with a laugh.

"Great. Business is still as frequent as ever. Our profits just seem to continue to grow each year, quite due to the growing number of exploration teams that use our service I must say." Said Leon, though I could see that his brother wasn't in complete agreement.

"I beg to differ. I think what's attracting more business to us is our new variety of products and the shop's friendly atmosphere. I still say selling perfect apples would give us more business with how much Wigglytuff likes them but Leon just doesn't think we'd pull a profit from just one customer. Said Cam to his brother.

"I said it once and I'll say it again. There just isn't enough demand to match the cost of each apple." He argued. I just had to make a suggestion.

"Why don't you just send someone to go collect them from apple woods? It's not too far from here and I don't think it would be much of a hassle. Maybe you could even hire an exploration team to do it."

The two brothers seemed to contemplate this for a moment. "Ehh, no I don't think Chatot would like that idea very much and it wouldn't really be appropriate to take up an explorer's time that could be spent helping those in need." Said Leon with a sigh.

"And it's not like we're pressed for time. Our profit margins are fine as is after all." Added Cam. I just laughed.

"Ok guys, I've got to go. Nice talking with you." I then walked off in the direction of the crossroads. When I got there, everything seemed normal until a mudkip suddenly ran behind me looking terrified.

"Hey, are you ok? I asked the mudkip who looked to be female by her size. I suddenly heard shouts out in the direction the mudkip had come. I stood in front of her protectively while I waited for the two pokémon to catch up.

"Hey! Move out of the way so we can get that pesky mudkip. She's a sneaky little thief!" Said one of the two, a charmander. The other, a sneazle, just stood out to the side trying to catch his breath.

I realized how scared the mudkip was so I tried to reason with the guy. "Hey, isn't there possibly a way we can work this out? Preferably non-violent?"

"Non-violent?! How can you say that? She's a thief! She stole my friend here's necklace." Said the charmander motioning toward the sneazle.

"Hold on, let me handle this." I said as I turned towards the mudkip. "Is what he said true?" I asked her calmly. She just nervously nodded. I then moved closer so as to speak into her um...ear.

"Why don't you just hand me the necklace. I promise, I won't let them hurt you." I whispered calmly. She just nodded and took the necklace out from a small bag she kept around her shoulder and handed it to me. I then turned around.

"Here, I think this was all a misunderstanding." I said as I handed over the necklace to which the charmander excepted.

"Hmm, I guess we'll just let her off the hook since we got it back. Thanks um..."

"Flint." I finished for him. We shook paws and the two just walked away. I then turned to face the mudkip. "Why did you steal that?" I asked her.

"Oh, thank's my name is Mari, nice to meet you." She said sarcastically with a laugh. Her smile didn't last for long however. "The truth is, I don't really know I just um...felt compelled to do it I guess." She explained to me. "Thank's for the help by the way. I'm on parole, I really don't need to be arrested again. I don't want to go to prison." She explained with a scared tone.

"Again? You've been arrested before?" I questioned her.

"Well yes, but the judge decided I was innocent since they found the real culprit. I don't really know how they could have thought I was capable of burning down a village. I'm a water type for crying out loud and I didn't even have my lighter on me that day." She explained while pointing to said item that was around her neck. "People now think I'm crazy due to my impulsive 'criminal behavior'." She said with imaginary air quotes around the words criminal and behavior. "Stealing that necklace was the worst thing I've done so far, though I'm not saying I'm completely innocent."

"Crazy?" I asked her in confusion. She didn't come across that way.

"Yeah, just because I said that "the voices" tell me to do things doesn't mean I'm crazy." She said, failing to be sarcastic in doing so. She then looked away from me to stare at her paws. "So I guess you think I'm crazy too?" She asked me with shame in her voice.

I just observed her for a few seconds before I smiled. "No no, it's ok. I believe that you aren't crazy." I said to her cheerfully. She looked up at me with a surprised expression.

"W-what? R-really?!" She asked me, a smile starting to grow on her face. I nodded with a smile.

"But what do you really mean when you say "the voices" tell you things?" I asked her.

"Oh, well it's not like I have thoughts that aren't mine. That really would mean I was insane. It's more like someone is talking to me telepathically. I just don't know what to do about it. No one believes me." She explained with tears in her eyes.

"Hey, that may have been true before, but I believe you." I said softly, trying to console her. "It is what a friend would do after all."

"Wait, f-friend? You...you think of me as a friend?" I nodded. "But you just met me." She said, looking shocked.

"I guess I just make friends easily." I replied with a laugh. After staring at me for a few seconds, she hugged me tightly around the neck. After a while, I felt the warmth of tears running down my back. She was...crying?

"T-thank you. I-I've n-never h-had a f-friend before." She thanked me between sobs. I just pat her on the back while quietly shushing her. I really did feel bad for her and I truly believed that she was sane. It was the matter of "the voices" that was really concerning me. If she wasn't crazy, which she wasn't, then what was with those voices?

After a while like that, she calmed down and looked at me with her beautiful dark blue eyes. Wait a minute, beautiful? Where did that come from? "Thank you." She said sweetly. Before releasing the hug. I strangely found myself wanting to keep hugging her. Weird right?

"So do you have anywhere to go?" I asked her. "If not, you're welcome to stay with me and my mom."

"Huh? Oh um...sure. Thanks...again." She laughed cutely. I nodded and we headed back over to my house.

When we got there, I knocked on the door. After a while, my mom opened the door. "Hey sweetie, back from your walk? Oh, who's this?" She asked me while motioning toward Mari.

"Mom, this is Mari. Mari, this is my mom, Emily." I introduced.

"Nice to meet you!" Said Mari with a smile as she shook her paw. Mom then welcomed us in, or rather welcomed Mari in. She stopped me at the door.

"Flint, this is the first time you've brought a girl home to meet me. Have anything to tell me?" She said with an expectant look in her eyes. It took me a few seconds to get what she meant.

"Um...no mom, Mari's just a friend." I whispered to her nervously with a blush on my face. Mari just giggled cutely.

"Oh, ok...Right." She replied. I then followed Mari deeper into the house to show her around.

"Anything you say." She smiled.

 

 

* * *

 

** Drenched Bluff, Alex's POV:  **

Sometime before we started the first floor of the cave, our group had agreed to split. I went with Eve while Austin and Ally (of course) went together off in another direction. I do suppose I shouldn't be complaining though. I am alone with Eve after all...wait a minute, what am I thinking? These thoughts were about to give me a migraine before the room we were in suddenly went pitch black, causing a surprised scream to proceed from the mouth of my eevee friend. Luckily, she was directly beside me so I didn't have to search for her.

"Hey Eve, it's ok. Don't worry, I'm sure this happens here all the time. It is a cave-like dungeon after all." I reasoned, a hand resting comfortingly along my companion's back. Sadly, consoling Eve didn't seem to be that easy, so I did the next thing that popped into my mind, I put my arm around her and pulled her close. I then proceeded to whisper into her ear.

"Hey Eve, it's gonna be ok. Take it easy, I'm right here." I whispered to my partner soothingly.

"I-I know b-but I-I'm k-kinda s-scared of the d-dark." Stuttered Eve in apparent fear. I sighed.

"Eve, don't worry. Nothing bad is going to happen to you so long as I am here remember. I promised you would always be safe with me around and I intend on keeping that promise so just try to calm down." I whispered to her calmly. I then searched around until I found Eve's paw and held it.

"Let's quickly find the stairs and get to the next floor. I think I saw them before it got dark." I explained to my now slightly less terrified friend as I carefully led us forward through the dark room. Luckily, it didn't seem as though there were any wild pokémon roaming around the room so there were no "unneeded surprises" as we made our way towards the stairs that I was sure I saw before. After about five minutes or so of endlessly wandering around in the dark, I suddenly felt something with my foot besides the usual wet, rocky terrain that adorned the floor.

"Great! The stairs are right in front of us Eve. Let's go!" I told my partner before making sure she was next to me and heading down the staircase.

On the next floor, we were gratefully greeted with a room filled with light, a big improvement from the previous floor. "Whew, are you ok Eve?" I asked worriedly with a sigh.

"Yeah I'm fine, although a softer landing would have been nice." Said Eve in a less than gracious tone. Apparently, Eve had tumbled down the staircase and face-planted on the hard rock floor. I rushed over to help her up.

"Ugh, next time, don't let go. Ok Alex?" Continued Eve through an annoyed tone as I got her to her feet. That made me feel a bit guilty.

"Oh, sorry ehehehe." I said with my hand on the back of my neck and a drop of sweat near where my eyebrow should have been. I then noticed a medium sized cut on Eve's forehead. It wasn't too bad but it was bleeding regardless.

"Here Eve, hold on a sec." I stated as I searched through my treasure bag for something. I strangely recalled something my mom used to do for me whenever I had a cut. It involved the use of an oran berry, for healing, and a heal seed to help prevent infection. It was a pretty simple procedure, but since the cut was in a rather inconvenient location, it took me a while to figure out what to do. I crushed the seed and the berry and spread it on my scarf before I tied it around Eve's head in such a way that it covered the cut without obscuring her vision.

"There, that should do." I stated as I gave Eve a smile. "It actually makes you look rather cute." I said without thinking. "Ope, um oops, I-I mean..." I tried to interject but it was too late.

"You think I'm cute huh? Well, thank you very much doctor." Teased Eve with a cute giggle in response to the bright blush on my face. After a while, she calmed down again. "Really, thanks." She continued with a smile before she hugged me around the neck.

She let go a few seconds later, gave me a cute wink, and walked on ahead of me. Is it just me, or does she seem more confident when she flirts with me? I pondered before I followed after her.

After that, the floor seemed rather uneventful. A couple of resident pokémon showed up from time to time, but they proved no match for us. I decided to take this time to get to know Eve better, so I cleared my throat and began to talk. "So um Eve, uh...where are you from?" I asked her. 'Really? Is that the best you could come up with?' I mentally slapped myself.

"Huh? Oh um, well, my sister and I are from a place called Evolution Forest a while to the south from here near a town called Pokémon Square. It's not really that exciting or anything, but that's where Ally and I grew up. Plus, it's where Ally met Austin, so I guess it's really important to her. To me, however, I never really took a shine to the place. Maybe it's because my parents disappeared when I was too young to remember, but I just never grew attached to the place. What about you? Do you remember anything about where you're from?" She asked me after answering my question.

I thought for a while before I shook my head. "Nope, I still can't remember anything besides my name and that little cut treatment thing." I responded with a sigh. Eve must have noticed my disappointment, because she gave me a great smile. Man, does that girl know how to smile or what?

"Hey, that's ok. You're bound to remember something sometime. In the meantime, you can continue to have fun with me!" She continued, although I was too deep in thought to respond.

After a while, I guess Eve got a little nervous, because I wasn't expecting the next question that exited her mouth. "Hey um, Alex? If you um...had the chance to become human again and leave me, would you?" She asked me while looking quite depressed. That question alone was all it took for me to snap out of it.

"Huh? What? Oh, um...leave you? Um...Well Eve...it would definitely be a pretty hard decision since I've always been a human, but, I think I would miss you too much."

Eve just looked at me, surprised. I smiled. "The answer is no, and it will always stay that way. I would never leave you no matter what! You're my best friend Eve! How could I even think of doing that?" I asked her reassuringly. Eve just stared at me before tackling me to the ground.

"Ohhh thank you so much Alex!" Squealed Eve as she hugged me with joy. I was at a loss for words.

"Ok, ok. Eve, I get it. I made you happy. Now can you please get off of me?" I asked with a laugh. Eve suddenly stopped and looked at me.

"Huh? Oh um...s-s-sorry Alex!" Apologized Eve as she quickly jumped off of me and helped me up, a huge blush decorating her cute face.

"Oh no, Eve it's ok. I understand your excitement." I said with a laugh. "I guess I'd be pretty excited too if my best friend basically told me that they'd give up part of their life for me." I explained while dusting myself off. "Anyway, so what's your favorite color?" I asked, still at a loss for conversation topics.

"My favorite color? Oh, that's easy! Pink, like my eyes." She replied with a giggle. "What's yours?" She asked me.

I had to remember this. "Um...I think it was um...oh yeah! My favorite color is yellow." I replied in excitement. "So um...when's your birthday?" I asked her curiously.

"My birthday? Oh, it's January 1st. One minute after midnight to be exact. Ally was born before me exactly on midnight so we're both technically born on New Years. In fact, I don't get my name from my species, my parents named me Eve because I was born on the eve of a new year." She explained to me.

"Huh? Really? That's so cool!" I replied cheerfully. After a while, we finally reached the stairs and moved on.

On the next floor, there didn't seem to be much of anything. Not a good sign. Earlier, Eve had warned me about empty floors, telling me that they usually contained traps. Eve and I carefully made our way towards the next hallway before the ground suddenly gave way below Eve's feet. Thankfully, I was quick to react.

"Eve!" I shouted as I grabbed her paw to keep her from falling into the dark abyss below. I quickly pulled her out and hugged her. "What the heck was that?" I asked her in exasperation.

She tried to catch her breath before responding. "That...was a pitfall trap. Man do I hate those!" She exclaimed before resting her head in my arms. "At least when I'm the victim. Thanks for saving me. If you hadn't grabbed me like that, I would have been forced from the dungeon. I don't know about anyone else, but I prefer not to fail on the first mission." She explained to me.

"Wasn't a picnic for me either." I told her with a sigh. We then focused our attention ahead, only to be staring directly into each others' eyes.

"Wow, your eyes are so beautiful!" I stated dumbly as I looked at Eve. Eve just smiled. "Thanks um...so are yours?" She replied to me. After a few seconds of thinking about what she just said, we both burst out laughing.

"Wow, is that really all we could say? How cliché is that?" I asked her hysterically. She just laughed some more.

"I don't know, but I don't think you should take what I said as a complement." She said while laughing. I then put on a fake pouty face.

"What? You don't think my eyes are pretty?" I said sarcastically as we both laughed. After a while, we got up. "Haha, man, I love hanging out with you Eve." I said to her. She just smiled and laughed.

"I love hanging out with you too." By chance, we ended up face to face, staring into each-others eyes. We just stood there, blushes upon our faces, in a silence that could only be described as awkward. "Uh...um...c-come on, we should p-probably get going. Austin and Ally'll be waiting for us. Said Eve trying to calm down before I nodded and we continued down the stairs that we had apparently come across during our laughing fit.

 

 

* * *

 

** Drenched Bluff Pit, Eve's POV:  **

After we exited the final staircase, we saw Austin and Ally waiting for us a few steps away with puzzled looks on their faces. I really couldn't blame them with how ridiculous we both probably looked after rolling around on the floor and almost falling down pitfalls.

"Woah, what happened to you guys? Did you get run over by a geodude or something?" Asked Austin as we made our way over to them. I just rolled my eyes.

"Just having a little fun. So, is this the end of the dungeon or what?" I asked them. Austin just pointed towards something shiny on the floor.

"Well, judging from the fact that that's the pearl we're supposed to find, I'd say that's pretty likely." This was confirmed when a voice emitted from Alex's badge.

"Target item acquired, would you like to escape from the dungeon? Please push the center button and clearly speak your choice." Alex just stared at the badge weirdly.

"You know, I don't think I'll ever understand these things." I said to him. Austin swiftly picked up the pear and carefully put it into his treasure bag. Alex suddenly looked around with a weird expression on his face.

"Hey guys, did you hear something?" He asked in a suspicious voice.

"I didn't hear anything, did you guys?" I asked the others. Austin and Ally exchanged a confused look.

"No, we didn't hear anything either. Maybe you just imagined it Alex." Alex still didn't look too convinced, but he shook it off and pressed the button on his badge.

"Um...escape from the dungeon?" He said with a great amount of uncertainty before we were enveloped in a peculiar blue light and sent out of the dungeon, our mission completed.

 

 

* * *

 

** Drenched bluff pit: ? POV:  **

Not too long later, a dark figure walked out from behind a stalagmite. "To have let them form an exploration team..." The figure laughed, an evil looking grin plastered upon his face, clawed hands rubbing together, perhaps out of anticipation. "Oh how foolish you two have become..." He said before disappearing in a cloud of purple-ish smoke.

 

 

* * *

 

** Mari's POV:  **

After showing me around the house, Flint and I sat down to talk. "So, is there anything that you've ever wanted to do, you know, future plans?" Asked Flint curiously. I looked at him confusedly.

"Like what I want to be? Well, if people would stop acting like I'm insane, I've always kinda wanted to be an explorer, you know, in an exploration guild. My mom she, well, she and my father were quite the explorers to say the least. I used to always look up to them, which is exactly why I want to be an explorer. To honor them...follow in their footsteps, you know?"

"Wait, so your parents are..." He began.

"Yes, my parents are...are..." I tried to finish, but ended up bursting into tears. Flint looked surprised when I proceeded to bury my face into his chest, but he quickly shook it off and held me close, my head resting just beneath his.

"Shh, it's ok. I'm here. Everything's gonna be alright." Continued Flint as he tried to calm me down.

"I...I'm sorry I'm falling all over you, it's just...I've been mulling around with these feelings for a while and I've never really had anyone to share them with. I never get to, you know, talk about my parents because I don't have anyone to talk to." I told him, practically pouring out every ounce of stress that I've kept pent up inside of me for years.

"You ok now?" Asked Flint after a while. I nodded, pulling away and looking at him. "Thank's for being there for me. I appreciate it." I said with a smile before I leaned forward and kissed Flint on the lips. Immediately, I was struck with a feeling of the most intense joy that I had ever felt. My mind and heart were racing as I continued to kiss him. It was hard to explain, but I just wanted to get as close to him as possible. It was the greatest feeling I had ever experienced...until I realized what I was doing. I quickly broke the kiss.

"Oh...um...Flint I...I'm s-so sorry, I just...!" I started before I broke out of our embrace, ran out of the room and bolted straight out the door.

Flint's POV:

"Mari wait!" I yelled after her as she bolted out of the room.

"Flint honey, is everything alright? I just saw your friend run out the door." Said my mom with a concerned look as she entered my room. I just sighed.

"Yeah mom, everything's fine, I'll go talk to her." I said before I left the house. When I got outside, I saw foot-prints in the sand leading to the left. After following them, I soon came upon Mari. She seemed to be crying.

"Hey Mari, what was that about? Why did you run away?" I asked her as I approached. She looked over at me, apparently surprised that I had followed her.

"Huh? Oh, Flint um...I...I'm sorry for kissing you, I just got caught up in the moment I guess." She apologised. I just looked at her, confused.

"Hey, why are you apologizing? I asked her. I'm not mad at you."

She looked surprised. "You're not?" She asked me, looking up.

"No, why would you think that?" I asked, sitting down next to her. She looked at me shamefully.

"I kissed you. We just met, and I kissed you. That's not really something a friend does, and it's really not a good way to start out a relationship...at least for us." She explained. "I guess I just...I don't know. I'm not really good with these kinds of situations. You're the first friend I've ever had and I don't want to loose you.

"I know, I know. I get it. You're not used to being social. That's not a bad thing, you just didn't know how to handle the situation. I'm not mad at you. I couldn't be mad at you for that. Besides, I kinda liked it." I explained to her. She proceeded to give me a confused look.

"Look, my mom had a right to act the way she did when I introduced you. I really do like you, and I get it. We haven't known each other for that long, barely a day, but it's not uncommon to ask out someone that you've just met, and, although it usually doesn't start with a kiss, I understand."

"Wait, ask out? You didn't ask me out. What are you saying?" She asked suspiciously.

"I'm saying that it might be great if a certain mudkip I know would accompany me to the new café that just opened up at the crossroads." I said hintingly.

"What? What are you talking about? How is that even relev-Oh...wait a minute...you just asked me out didn't you? She asked me with a stupid look on her face.

"Yes, I asked you out." I laughed. "What did you think I meant?"

"Huh? I um...I just, uhh..." She stuttered cutely as I continued to laugh.

"Anyway, is that a yes I hear?" I said hopefully. She just smiled. "Well I don't know, if I say yes, will you take me to Wigglytuff's Guild so we can become an exploration team?"

"Well played." I sighed, laughing all the way. "It's a date. Come on, let's just get some sleep." I offered before we headed back for the house.


	4. The Son of Illusions

**_ Ch.4:The Son of Illusions!  _ **

 

 

* * *

 

** Crossroads, Austin's Pov:  **

After a few seconds, the strange blue lights disappeared, signifying that we were back at the crossroads. "Wow, that's going to take some time to get used to. Why don't they put warning labels on those things?" I said as I stood there holding my head, well, at least I wish I was standing, which I wasn't, unless you consider falling on top of you're girlfriend as standing up.

Ally just groaned in pain beneath me.

"Ok, Austin, I love you, but you're not exactly as light as you look."I quickly got off of her as soon as I regained my balance.

"Sorry Ally. Those badges may be cool, but traveling with them is disorienting." I apologized as I helped her up. Over to the side of us, Alex and Eve were in a similar predicament...minus the falling on top of each other thing.

"Ugh, you can say that again. I hate it when my ears pop, it's like listening to Loudred yell at you when you oversleep. Especially since my ears are huge. Man, why do eevee ears have to be so big?" Exclaimed Eve as she covered her ears, trying to stop the ringing. I guess that explains why she yelled.

Alex, as it seemed, hadn't recovered enough to get off of the floor. I kind of felt sorry for him. It took the effort of both Ally and Eve to get him onto his feet and he still looked like a Spinda in a hall of mirrors. "Yeah, somehow I knew there had to be a negative side to those badges." He managed while regaining his composure. "We should probably get back to the guild. We don't want to keep the client waiting on our first mission."

We then turned around and headed up the staircase and into the guild. After a while of waiting, a grey, pig-like pokémon with a spring for feet climbed, or rather bounced, down the latter. He bounced over to us.

"Um, hey. Are you by any chance Team Eviolite?" He asked us.

"You would be correct." I answered. "So I'm guessing you're Spoink, the one who sent the job request?" I questioned, pulling the pearl out of my treasure bag. With that, Spoink's face lit up.

"Oh! My pearl. Thank you so much! You see, I just can't seem to calm down when that pearl isn't on my head. It has something to do with my species. When spoink are born, a pearl is specially crafted and given to the child after about a year of age. It's tradition of sorts. I guess I kind of grew attached to it." He explained.

"Anyway, like I promised in the request, here's the reward." He then handed us a bunch of coins, which I recognized to be...three thousand poké! "Sorry it's not much, I don't have anything near the amount this pearl is worth."

I got the feeling that our standards of monetary value weren't quite the same. This was the most we had ever made on a mission.

"Wow, thanks!" Said Eve after she caught sight of the golden-colored coins. Spoink just waved it off.

"No, no. Please don't thank me. You guys did all of the work, I just showed up to the guild." He replied. "Anyway, I've got to go. See you guys around I guess." He then proceeded to climb the latter. Just as soon as he left, Chatot walked up to us.

"Impressive, it normally takes at least two attempts for our new recruits to complete a mission, though I guess I should expect no less from a rescue team of your stature." He congratulated. "Now, if you will, please hand over the poké." He continued.

And suddenly it felt like someone had scratched a record. "What?" I asked him. He just looked at me impatiently.

"Yes, yes, hand over the money. Quickly, quickly. The guild doesn't have time to dilly-dally." He said in a rather melodic tone. I cooperated accordingly, handing him the rather large pile of coins. A few seconds later, he returned a small fraction of the reward, about ten percent, to our surprise.

"Only three-hundred poké?" Asked Alex. Chatot then laughed as if this were a question he normally had to answer.

"Why yes, the guild always takes ninety percent of all earnings. It's part of your training and housing fees. Shall you happen to graduate from our guild, that will drop to fifty percent, but that's a small price to pay for what we provide for our members." He explained. "Besides, the guild needs something to keep it running smoothly. We're not exactly rich if you know what I mean." He continued before walking off. I just sighed.

"Well that's not fair, we should at least get half. That mission wasn't exactly pleasant." Exclaimed Eve in agitation.

"That...makes more sense I guess. We've never made more than seven-hundred poké from a mission and that's after five hours of work." speculated Ally. "Oh well, I'm just happy to be helping people. It's never about the money anyway, right?"

I smiled. Ally was always the type of girl who helped others without expecting something in return. That's one of the things that I admired about her. She's completely unselfish.

"Yeah, I guess I'm just happy to be part of this guild." Continued Eve. Ally and I just looked at her.

"You better be. You worried us by leaving the way you did. I knew you wanted to be part of an exploration team, but I didn't expect you to disappear in the middle of the night." Scolded Ally.

I just laughed. Eve was the only reason we were here after all. She left, like Ally said, in the middle of the night with nothing but a note to explain why. Ally, well, she freaked out to say the least. Eve was the only family member that Ally "thought" she had at the moment it happened. It's understandable why she would react that way.

"I know, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking I guess. Anyway, Alex and I are going to talk to Chatot about your badges and guild registration. You two should go check out the town or something." Explained Eve.

"Oh, ok. Come find us when you're done though. Mom and Dad still want to see you." With that, Eve seemed to get excited as she sped off, Alex quickly following behind. We then left the guild.

After exiting the guild, we began to descend the staircase, which was incredibly long I might add. "So what do you think of them?" I asked Ally while we walked.

"Them?" She asked in confusion. I forgot that I hadn't told her about Eve's "secret" crush. I did a mental face-palm and began to explain.

"Alex and Eve, it's not just friendship with them you know, well, at least with Alex. I was talking to him while you were explaining to Eve that your parents' were still alive. Well...talking as in complete silence and watching him look at Eve. It was at that point that he said Eve was cute, out loud by accident. You'd be surprised at how oblivious a person can be when thinking about someone they like."

It was at that point that Ally stopped walking, prompting me to do the same.

"Woah, woah, woah. Wait...Alex likes Eve?! When exactly were you planning on telling me this?" She asked with slight frustration in her voice.

"Well...eheh...I can't say I was planning to at all." Ally raised her eyebrow (or whatever that was for an Eevee). "Sorry, Alex told me to keep it a secret from Eve and I didn't want her to hear. I was trying to get you alone so I could tell you, but the mission kind of got in the way." I apologized.

Ally sighed. "No more secrets between us. Okay?" She asked. I nodded in agreement. "Anyway, I'm not really sure what Eve is thinking. Then again, who really is? But now that you mention it, Eve seemed to open up to Alex almost immediately." Ally explained. I gave her a confused look.

"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked her, not getting what she was saying.

"Well, you see, Eve has always taken a while to get used to being around someone before she really got to know them." She explained. "She's always been so shy, and to see her interact with Alex without this problem, well, it's shocking to say the least. I think she has feelings for him, but I'm not exactly sure. Eve can be a wild card at times." She continued.

"Wait. If that's true, then why did she talk to me when I first met her without a problem?" I asked her.

"Oh, that's just because she was being protective of me. She wanted to make sure that you were being good to me as my boyfriend I guess." She explained. "I'm sorry if she scared you by the way." She laughed. I did the same.

"Well then, we should get to work." Said Ally. I eyed her suspiciously.

"What do you mean? Get to work with what?" I asked her. Sometimes Ally could be very unclear.

"Why with meddling of course. Somehow I don't see either of them confessing anytime soon. They're both too shy around the subject, especially given that we couldn't tell they liked each other ourselves until they either told us or we figured it out. Someone has to give them a little push." She explained with a smirk. We then continued climbing down the incredibly long staircase. I was tempted to call it the "never ending staircase" for some reason, but I let it go.

As soon as we reached the crossroads, we immediately turned to head over to Ally's parents' house. Not a second later, we heard a familiar voice behind us. As we turned around, we found the owner of the voice to be Flare, standing with Drew and Connor behind her. "Drew, Flare, Connor? What are you guys doing here? We told you to stay at the base." I scolded. I wasn't too fond of having newbie team members hold down our base, along with the fact that I was pretty sure that the Rescue Team Federation had made a rule against more than two members leaving without the proper rank, gold rank.

Drew spoke up. "Sorry, but Conor wouldn't calm down with Eve gone and we couldn't exactly let him go on his own. Keep in mind that Connor and Eve are best friends." He explained. "Don't worry, we've already contacted the federation and they agreed to let us go since we still had four other members in our team." I calmed down a bit after hearing that.

"Ok, well nice to see you again I guess. Eve is up in the guild talking to the guildmaster. Why don't you go meet up with them since I'm sure you'll be joining the team as well. There's no need to make Chatot freak out over the amount of members he has to register for our team." I explained.

The others seemed to listen the entire time, but with Connor, I had barely gotten to "Eve is at the guild" before he shot off towards the stairs. I hadn't realized how close he was to Eve until now, and knowing him, I was a bit worried about how he would react around Alex. I shook it off nonetheless. "See you later guys!" I said as they followed Conor up the stairs. Ally and I exchanged looks before we continued towards the house.

 

 

* * *

 

** Wigglytuff's guild, Eve's Pov:  **

"So, you came to get badges for Austin and Ally?" Alex and I nodded. "Great, well here you go!" Said Wigglytuff in his usual tone of voice while handing us the badges. At that moment, Chatot came in, followed by...Conor? Drew and Flare came in afterwards.

"Guys? What are you doing here?" I asked them. Flare spoke up.

"It's a long story. We'll tell you later." She replied. Conor just looked at me.

"I missed you." He said immediately. "That's why we're here." He continued. I looked at him with a guilty look.

"Oh...sorry, I didn't really think to ask you if you wanted to come here with me." I said as I gave him a hug. We had become great friends back when we were in Pokémon Square. Alex gave us a strange look.

"Who's he?" He asked. I thought I heard a slight tinge of jealousy in his voice, but I might have just imagined it.

"Oh, this is Conor. He and I are great friends. What? Did you think Austin and Ally were our only other members?" I asked him with a laugh. "And these two are Drew and Flare." I introduced the others. Alex shook paws with both of them, though Conor and Alex just seemed to glare at each other. I found that a bit strange, but I let it go. Somehow I didn't think they'd get along.

"Yoomtah!" Shouted Wigglytuff, half scaring the others. "Well, since you three are also acquainted with Team Eviolite, I went ahead and made badges for you too." Said Wigglytuff, smiling as he always did. It's like he spends all of his time being happy. I was starting to understand why he was well known around this area.

The others walked up and received their badges, thanking him in the process. It would be an understatement to say that they were surprised by Wigglytuff's...um...generosity. We proceeded to leave the room as Chatot started to hurriedly write something down.

 

 

* * *

 

** Grace family house, Austin's Pov:  **

After about ten minutes of walking through the town square, we witnessed the all too familiar sight of Ally's house. After walking up to the door, I proceeded to knock. Not five seconds later, Ella Grace opened the door.

"Oh, hello Austin, Ally. Did you find Eve?" She asked in a warm, motherly tone. The tone of her voice seemed to be directed at both of us, but I suppose it would make since for her to do that, me being her daughter's boyfriend and all. I nodded accordingly.

"She's at the guild getting our badges and the rest of our team registered. She should be here in a few minutes." I explained as we were welcomed into the house.

"Well, since it appears that we have some time, I suppose it would be appropriate to explain how the magic stimulator works. Now, normally, as I told you before, a young wizard's magic remains dormant until a certain age, however, to ensure Ally's safety, we placed a seal on her powers and created the orb that we call the stimulator. Of course, this was done purely to help hide Ally from Shade, you see, Shade tends to follow the trail of a wizard's magic. Knowing this, we had to do something to obscure his ability to do so." She explained.

"Oh ok, well how do you go about removing this seal? I mean, I would guess Ally would need to learn how to use magic in order for us to face Shade and protect her." I questioned, mainly concerned for Ally's safety.

"Huh? Oh, well it's fairly simple. Shard and I will simply recite the sealing spell we used to suppress Ally's powers, backwards of course. Saying it the same way we did when Ally was a baby would have no effect. After all of that is said and done, we start her training. Now, normally any unsealing spell could be used to do the same, but, since we used a spell lock, it will only work if a specific spell is recited by the people who originally cast it." She explained. "Shard honey, I need you in here." She called out to her husband, who entered the living room from what was apparent to be his and Ella's room.

"What's going on?" He asked his wife after acknowledging that we were in the room.

"We're going to re-activate Ally's magic." She replied. "Now, Austin, if you will, please take out the stimulator."

I responded accordingly, quickly reaching into my treasure back to retrieve the mystical orb. I handed it to her.

"Alright, now, Ally, please stand in front of us." She requested as Ally proceeded to walk up to them. I merely stood off to the side and observed. Ella and Shard both put a paw on the orb and closed their eyes. "Ok, Ally sweetie, we need you to stand completely still while we recite the spell. Moving around too much would cause the spell to become ineffective." Ella instructed. I guess concentration is a key factor in many spells. That's going to be a challenge for me, seeing that I have ADHD and can't concentrate to save my life. Ella and Shard proceeded to speak in a language I didn't recognize.

"Energopoií̱ste ti̱ dýnami̱ se af̱tó to nearó odi̱gó. Afí̱ste ti̱n exousía na réoun eléf̱thera sto eso̱terikó!" They chanted as the orb began to shine eerily with a dull blue shade. After a few seconds of this, Ally began to shine as well, briefly glowing a bright pink color. This lasted for a few seconds before both Ally and the orb stopped shining, the orb simultaneously breaking. Ella and Shard opened their eyes and smiled.

"Perfect! We successfully recited the spell. The orb shattered as it should when the spell was completed." Exclaimed Shard. He then proceeded to write something down on a piece of paper before handing it to Ally. "Now, to make sure it worked, let's test it with a simple level one spell, a cleaning spell to be exact. Ally, focus on the orb that just shattered and recite the spell." Ally followed as instructed.

"Furoa o kuria." She recited just as a puff of smoke appeared around the said orb. When the smoke cleared, the shattered orb had disappeared. Ella and Shard smiled at this.

"And just like that, you learned your first spell." Said Shard, proud of his daughter. His voice had a tinge of sadness to it. "We've waited so long to be able to say that, congratulations Ally." They congratulated.

"That was so cool!" Exclaimed Ally with an excited tone. For a minute I wondered where the objects that disappeared went. I shook it off and gave Ally a hug. She proceeded to kiss me on the cheek. As she did that, something rather unexpected happened. Just as soon as she put her lips to my cheek, a pink colored aura emitted from it and continued outward a few inches, completely engulfing us before it disappeared. Ally and I just stood there looking confused. "Um, what just happened?" Asked Ally in an overwhelmingly confused tone.

Ella just smiled at us. "There are many peculiar reactions that occur between two wizards who have formed an emotional bond, especially if love is involved. What you two just experienced is quite a rare case I must add. I suppose this happened due to the activation of Ally's powers." Explained Ella. "In fact, my species comes from one such rare reaction in which evolution is triggered." She continued.

Shard seemed a little hesitant to smile, but he proceeded to do so nonetheless. I guess I sort of understood why. After all, I was his daughter's boyfriend and parents don't usually like to see their children grow up, especially if they missed most of their child's life.

It was at that moment that we heard a knock on the door. I went over to the door and opened it to find Eve and the others waiting outside patiently.

Upon coming inside, Eve immediately looked towards Ella and Shard and started tearing up. "M...m-mom, d-dad? Is...is it really you?" She asked, as if she truly could not believe it was them, and with one simple nod of Ella's head, Eve was already on top of her mother, pushing and crying into her chest. Everyone else just stood off to the side as Shard joined in on the touching moment.

"Eve is the strongest believer out of the two of us." Said Ally as she watched. "She never stopped believing that they were still alive. I thought it was just self protection instinct at first, but I can now see that it was pure belief." She continued. I just put my arm around her.

"We're so sorry we had to leave you, we couldn't bear to even think about how you would react to our sudden disappearance, especially at such a young age." Said Ella out of relief.

It was at that moment that Eve tensed up. She immediately pulled away from them with a look of complete disbelief. "Had to? Wait...you...you left intentionally?" She asked them, anger and betrayal starting to become clear in her voice. It would be an understatement to say that everyone was shocked to hear this strange flip.

"Do you know how much pain you put me through by leaving?! By making me think you were killed?! How could you just lie to me like that?!" Eve practically screamed at them, tears now flowing from her eyes. "How could you?" She continued in a small, hurt voice.

"Eve, honey, we were just trying to-" Ella tried to say, but Eve cut her off. I could have never expected this. It was clear that Eve felt betrayed at this moment, and I could tell why, but I never saw it coming.

"No! Just...just don't say it. I don't want to hear." She spouted. "I never should have come here." She said before she ran out the door. Ella and Shard didn't look as surprised as the rest of us, excluding Alex who didn't even react, but it was enough to be seen clearly upon their faces. Ella, Shard, and everyone else tried to go after her, but Alex stopped them at the door.

"Hold it! Following her will only make it worse." He explained in a completely calm tone. [How is he so calm? I thought.] "Eve feels betrayed, that much is clear, but that's not the full story. Eve is very emotional, I've only known her for a few days and I can still understand that. She may be afraid of many things, many of them I could never hope to find out, but what I have noticed as I have known her is her greatest fear. It is not thunder or the dark, but merely the thought of being abandoned or betrayed." He explained. "I can relate to that." He continued with an unnerved sound in his own voice. I've never seen him remove himself from his usual calm nature, but something about those words seemed to freak him out, even if he never showed it. "Let me handle this." He stated clearly.

"Who are you?" Shard asked in a quite confused tone. I had almost forgotten that Alex hadn't been introduced yet.

"I'm her best friend sir, or at least one of them." He said, casting a glance at Conor, who looked a little jealous at the moment. "I will probably be the only one who can calm her down. Don't worry, I'll bring her back." He said reassuringly before he left.

 

 

* * *

 

** Alex's Pov:  **

Immediately after I left Eve's house, I headed straight for the beach. I already knew where she had gone. I don't normally forget anything, perfect memory and all, and I clearly heard Eve mention something about the beach and her parents. I would only guess it comforts her.

I immediately headed right at the crossroads, quickening my pace. I was a little worried that Eve would run off somewhere if I couldn't get there in time.

When I reached the beach, I called out to her. "Eve, I know you're here, just come out please." I stated, compassion included in my tone. After a few seconds of hearing nothing but the ocean waves and looking at the bubbles that krabby were blowing around, Eve came out from wherever she was hiding and tackled me to the ground in a hug, quietly sobbing into my chest.

"Shh, shh, it's ok. Just let it out, I understand why your acting this way, just calm down." I said quietly to her while softly patting her back. After a while, Eve looked up at me.

"Thank you. I'm sorry if I worried you-" she began to say before I cut her off.

"It's ok. Let's just talk about it. Ok?" I asked her. She nodded. "You know they were just trying to protect you, right? I haven't heard of anything going on, but they must have done it so that you would be safe. No parents would want to leave their children." I explained.

Eve nodded silently. "I know, I know, it's just that it freaked me out. I panicked because-."

"You thought for a second that they abandoned you." I finished. "There's nothing wrong with that, and I know you didn't mean to say those things. Your parents'll understand." I said softly, wrapping my arms around her as we gazed out at the sunset.

"How did you know about that?" She asked me, referring to the abandonment I had mentioned.

"Honestly...you talk in your sleep. I heard you on our first night together." I said with a laugh. She laughed along with me.

"Thank you Alex. Thank you for everything you've done so far. You understand me more than anyone else does and you've only known me for a few days. That's why I...I um..." She started to say but faded out before she got there.

"You what?" I asked curiously. She looked at me like she wanted to say it before a smirk appeared on her face. She gave me a kiss on the cheek and whispered: "Guess you'll just have to figure it out." in a playful like tone. She then returned to her spot, resting her head under my umm...chin.

"I always believed that they were still alive, my parents I mean. I never stopped. To hear them say that they had to leave me, it, well it just breaks my heart, and when I'm heartbroken, I run off. I'm sorry if I freaked you out or anything." She continued.

"No, no. I knew what was wrong even before we reached your parents' house. You seemed to be a little depressed underneath all of your excitement. I pay attention to the slightest of details to put together certain things in my mind. I inferred that your parents apparently left, causing these problems." I told her.

She just laughed. "How are you so smart?" She said to me. After a while of staring at the sunset, Eve and I decided to walk back to the house.

"We better go, we don't want your parents and everyone worrying about you." I told her before we left the beach.

 

 

* * *

 

** Flashback (12 years), Ella's Pov:  **

I was standing on a hill near Evolution Forest staring at our old house while my husband stood next to me, trying to calm me down. It would be a huge understatement to say that I was emotional at the moment. I was devastated. I could only imagine how frightened our two children were at the moment, thinking there mother and father were gone. The house itself was completely crumbled to pieces, flattened to the ground. I wanted so badly to make sure that my babies were safe after the earthquake had ended ten minutes ago, but I knew I could not interfere with what had to happen. After all, it was painfully inevitable. Some things just had to be done to protect them.

"Oh Shard, I...I just can't take this. What if they're not even alive. I want to make sure they're ok." I said to my husband, trying and failing to hold back the tears. He looked at me with an equally pained expression.

"I know, this isn't what we had originally planned, but with Shade on the move, we can't take any chances. I'm sure their alive though, I saw to it that they were out of the house before it came down and they weren't close enough to the forest to get hurt or trapped. There is nothing else we can do but wait." He replied in a tone that could only be described as stressed to its limits. I hadn't the slightest glimpse of my children when the earthquake happened. The earthquake itself was an excuse to get away from them, but what they had to believe to make it an effective trick was almost unbearable. I was in a state of complete and total distress.

"What if I n-never get to see them again Shard? Shade could find them at any moment and they are completely defenseless. I'll...I'll have to miss them grow up and I can't imagine what they'll think of us if they do find us later. I...I want my babies. They...they can't be...be led to think-." I couldn't seem to complete the sentence. We both knew it, they would think we were dead. I tried to make a move to get back to them, but Shard held me back.

"We can't interfere with fate. I'm sorry but we don't have a choice. We have to go." Said Shard before he grabbed me and started pulling me further away from the site...further away from our children.

"Ally! Eve! We, we can't just leave them Shard!" I practically screamed. I was in such distress that anything I had said went against what I believed was necessary. I took one last glimpse of our old home before I was half dragged away.

"My babies..." I muttered pathetically as I watched the town in which we lived disappear.

 

 

* * *

 

** End of flashback:  **

I was pulled out of my thoughts when Alex and Eve returned to the house. I have to admit that I never expected this bad of a reaction from her. She walked up to me with a guilty look on her face.

"Mom, Dad I...I'm sorry for how I reacted before, I...I just got scared." She said in a shameful voice. Scared? Scared of what? I was starting to worry about Eve.

"No, no Eve. It's ok, I understand how you feel, but what were you afraid of that made you run away?" I asked her. I was a bit concerned. If it made her react in such an extreme way, it must've been something horrible.

"Oh, well I..." She started before looking back at Alex. He gave her an encouraging nod and she turned around. Something was obviously going on between those two. I've never seen friends act in this way toward one another and there was a certain look Alex had in his eyes when he looked at Eve. Nor have I ever seen someone who was able to calm Eve down in such a short amount of time without some type of injury. By my knowledge, Eve's only known Alex for a few days.

"I thought for a minute that you abandoned me and that's one of my deepest fears, well, that and being alone. I've never so much as thought of the word without cringing. Haven't you ever wondered why I refused to leave Ally's side when we were kids?" She explained.

That made sense, I don't think I ever saw Eve without Ally. In fact, Shard and I would always get confused between the two because of their similarity, so we put a gracedea flower near her ear. When they were little, before we left, their eyes were the same color. Eye color only changes when magic is present within them, but I never quite understood why Eve's changed given she has no magic. It seems that she had recently replaced it with a bow.

"We would never do that. You're our daughter, we just left you to protect you, and here you are 12 years later, all grown up." I practically screamed at myself to avoid breaking into tears, well, in my mind at least. I never really got to see them grow up and it's every parents' nightmare to miss that. Growing up meant leaving, and they were already gone by that rule.

I gave Eve a kiss on the forehead and ruffled the hair on top of her head. "Well, now that we've settled that, there's someone I'd like you to meet."

 

 

* * *

 

** Austin's Pov:  **

Who could Ally's parents possibly want us to meet? We already know Lucario and he still doesn't know where they are. We followed them out the door of the house and walked down to the edge of what Eve called Sharpedo Bluff which, in accordance with its name, looked exactly like a sharpedo. "Wait a minute, what are we here for? There's no one around and nothing past this point."

Ella just smiled at me. "I'm glad you asked that question. Your gonna need to know that everything is not what it seems in this world. Just watch." We did as told. Ella turned around to look at a small bush on the path. She waved her paw in a circular motion directed at the bush, which melted into the ground and disappeared, only to be replaced by a hole with some stairs leading down into the bluff. [Ugh, this magic stuff is giving me a headache.]

"Luke, you can come out now." She shouted down the hole. Who's Luke? As long as I've known her, Ally's never mentioned the name Luke. Just as I was thinking this, a male eevee with dark blue eyes walked out from the hidden entrance before it disappeared, the bush reappearing. He appeared to be around Ally's age.

"This is Luke. Ally, Eve, he's...well...he's your brother." Explained Shard to our astonishment. Ally and Eve had a brother, how many of them were there? He, like Eve, looked exactly like Ally, minus the feminine body structure.

"Umm...hi guys. Nice to meet you all." Luke greeted us nervously. It was clear that his nervousness came from the strange looks we were giving him. "What, is it something I said, or do you just not like me?" He joked. It was safe to say that this was one of the most awkward family introductions I had ever witnessed.

"How could you not tell us we had a brother?" Eve didn't look too happy. "More importantly, how come we haven't seen him before? He's around our age." She questioned. Ella sighed.

"We hid him from you when you were too young to remember. Wigglytuff watched over him while we were in Pokémon Square with you guys. His magic is way too powerful to keep around you two. If he had been with you, Shade would have found you years ago. He doesn't even know Luke exists and we want to keep it that way. If he found out, he would try to do something much worse to you than kill you." She explained.

"Well, as long as we're doing introductions, I think it's appropriate that we introduce you to our other members." Ella and Shard turned to face me. "That's Drew and Flare." I said while motioning toward them. "We met them when they came to Pokémon Square a while ago. We met Conor over here when we were running away from Team AWD, which out explain to you later. And you already know Alex, but he's Eve's partner. He used to be human like me, but that shouldn't surprise you anymore." The only one who seemed confused was Luke. I doubt Ella told him about me.

"Wait, aren't humans only in fairy-tales? I didn't think they were real. How did you get here anyway?" Luke questioned.

"Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to Alex. I was brought here by someone known as Gardevoir, but we don't know how Alex ended up here. We both have amnesia." I explained to him. [Ugh, I hope I don't have to explain that for the rest of my life.]

"Well I don't know about you guys, but it's getting dark and I'm pretty sure the guild gates were shut an hour ago. Shouldn't we be heading back to the house?" Conor looked at me impatiently. He was never one to like staying in one place for long. The only reason he's here with us is because we ran into him as fugitives and he explained he was a traveller.

We all laughed at that statement. "Yes, I do suppose we should be getting home, but about the guild. We need you to let Luke join your team." Shard explained.

"Ok, well at least we'll have enough members for two separate groups in dungeons. We can't exactly go all at once, Chatot explained that we could only go in dungeons as groups of four. So I'd say yes, he can join." Eve replied. Well it seems as if we have to do missions in two different groups, which are likely comprised of myself, along with Ally, Alex and Eve in group 1 and the others, group 2. Conor didn't look too happy about being in group two without Eve when I explained it to him. We all left for home.

 

 

* * *

 

** Mari's Pov:  **

Flint and I had just gotten into the new Spinda Café after about a half hour wait. It seemed like reservations were going to have to be made to get in early, at least until the attraction to this place calmed down. I don't know why Flint led me to his house just for us to walk back to the café. That didn't seem to affect me though considering I didn't really know how to act on a date, having never been on one before, and I'll have to admit, I was nervous. That and I really liked Flint. It was strange, I had only known him for a few hours and I already had a crush on him. It didn't seem to bother him though. Flint was a natural romantic from what I've seen of him so far.

I took this into account when we made our way to a table as Flint pulled out a chair for me like a gentleman, not to mention he had payed extra to get us into a private room together. He didn't make me pay for anything, not that I had any money on me, but it was interesting to see how quick he was to accept the bill. I couldn't quite understand why we had to pay up front when we hadn't even ordered anything upon entering. It was as if Flint spent every single hour of the day practicing his dating skills.

"So um...tell me again why you were on the run in the first place." He said as he sat down. What? I never said he knew how to start a conversation, let alone keep it up under pressure.

"Flint, I'm pretty sure you already know why I was on the run. You don't have to be nervous when you talk to me. I haven't been on a date before either." He put on a look of mock-confidence after I said that.

"What makes you think I haven't been on a date before?" I just smiled at his failed attempt to look cool, even though I knew it was supposed to be a joke.

"Well, you know how to treat a girl on a date, but your conversation skills aren't exactly perfect. Your opening question was over something I already explained to you." I replied with a laugh. He blushed at that statement. [Note to self, Flint is a natural romantic, check. Flint is bad with conversations, check.]

I just smiled as I took a sip of my Oran Smoothie. It seemed that the main feature of this place was taking items and turning them into smoothies, anything else being recycling items. "Flint, I have to ask you a question." Flint looked up from his Pecha Smoothie, or should I say, moment of shame, to pay attention. "Why are you so upbeat all the time? You're kind to pretty much everyone you meet, even a criminal, you know how to be a gentleman, and you believed that I wasn't crazy without a second thought." I continued. This question seemed to amuse him.

"Why shouldn't I? It's easy to get through life when everyone likes you and acting like that is something everyone should do. I believed you because I've never really been suspicious of anything in my life. Why start now? Besides, I can always tell when someone has good intentions or not." He explained, as if he didn't have to think twice about the question.

Wow, that's really open-minded. Usually I was afraid of people like that since they were so easily fooled into hating me, but I ironically felt safe around him. I don't know why, it might have been that he was the first person to ever call me a friend, but that didn't seem correct in my mind. I was about to respond when I heard a voice speaking in my head. ("Someone amongst you is trying to steal from you. Thieves don't get robbed.) While the thief part wasn't unusual, considering it always said that, the word robbed caught my attention. It happened so suddenly that I nearly knocked my smoothie over as I held my head in pain. This seemed to worry Flint a bit. "Uhh...Mari? Are you ok?"

"Yeah, yeah. I just..." I started to say before I caught something moving out of the corner of my eye. As it seemed, a Zorua happened to be walking away from our table. I jumped out of my seat and pinned him to the ground.

Flint seemed surprised by my sudden outburst, but then again, who wouldn't? "This guys just stole something from our bag. I've been on the run long enough to tell a pick pocket from everybody else." I explained. The zorua suddenly dropped some coins, which I noticed to be around 1,000 poké. Flint seemed surprised.

"Why did you steal that?" Flint asked him, as if he'd respond.

"Hey hey hey, woah. Calm down, please don't hurt me or turn me in to the police!" He begged. I wasn't usually too open to being kind to someone who was stealing from me, but then again, neither was I cruel. I let him go, making sure he wasn't going to run away. As he stood up, I could tell he was frightened. "I'm sorry. It's just an old habit of mine that I'm trying to break. I'm not a thief." He explained in a hurry. I believed him, having been at the other side of that conversation before.

"Relax, I believe you. Don't be such a coward." I told him. "Who are you exactly?" This question seemed to be one he was used to answering.

"Ugh, my name is Thomas, or Gipson if you'd prefer. I came to this town two days ago to be in an exploration team. I don't know about you, but I don't like being seen as a criminal, contrary to popular belief." I smirked at that.

"Well Thomas, since you tried to steal from us, either you come with us to Wigglytuff's Guild and be a part of our team, or we'll just have a little talk with officer Magnazone." He seemed to laugh at this.

"How did I not see that one coming?" He responded sarcastically. "Fine, I'll be on your team, just forget about my little pick-pocket attempt."

"What pick-pocket attempt?" I asked him cleverly. He smiled at this. "Come on, you can stay with us until the guild opens it's gates tomorrow. It's closed right now." I said as we left a quick tip and led him to Flint's house.

 

 

* * *

 

** Eve's Pov:  **

I just smiled at everyone else's surprised faces as they watched my mom make trash disappear again. We had been home for a while, and Mom was more than eager to explain the whole "magic" thing.

"Wait, so you're a family of wizards?" Alex questioned. "Even you Ally?" He repeated to Ally. I nodded.

"Don't forget about me. I may not technically be a part of Ally's family, but I have magic as well. Just go look at the tree at the crossroads." Said Austin. This seemed to interest Ally.

"What do you mean? How does that have anything to do with this?" She asked him with suspicion in her tone.

"Oh, I didn't show you that yet? Well come on then, it's a surprise for you." He replied as the two exited the house. I had plans of my own as it turned out. Alex went to our room after a while to sit our treasure bag down. The reason I said "our room" was simply because I couldn't bear to sleep alone and he made me feel safe.

I walked around the living room for a while before I found a pen and a piece of paper. I wrote a quick note before I folded it up and slipped it under the door to mine and Alex's room.

 

 

* * *

 

** Austin's Pov:  **

When we reached the crossroads, I immediately led Ally to the tree with the still glowing symbol I had carved into the trunk. "This is what I meant to show you. Sorry I didn't get to do it before, I forgot with all that's been going on." Ally just smiled.

"It's ok, it's not everyday that someone has a surprise for me, this day being very unusual." She replied. She then examined the tree. After about five seconds, she let out a soft laugh.

"Huh, I never thought someone would do this for me. And I'm a bit confused about the glowing part."

"Well what do you expect? You're my girlfriend." I laughed. "The glowing part, well, that's how your mother figured out that I had magic." I explained to her. She walked up to me and kissed me on the cheek.

"Thank you for the gift Austin, it's very sweet of you." She said, smiling warmly. Ally seemed to have matured slightly from when we first got together. A few months ago, she would have jumped on top of me, squealing cutely.

"You're welcome. Oh and by the way, before we left, I saw Eve standing with a piece of paper while scanning the place for a pen. What do you think she's up to?" I asked smugly. She smiled at that.

"Someone's gonna get a secret admirer." She said, talking about Alex.

 

 

* * *

 

** Alex's Pov:  **

I was in the middle of sorting things in the treasure bag when I heard someone slip something under the door. I walked over to find that it was a note. I opened the door to look for who did this, but saw nothing.

I proceeded to pick up the folded note and open it. Written on the note was a simple message with some pretty neat hand-writing.

It read: "Alex, I have been watching you for a while, and I couldn't help but write you this note. I'm someone you know, so don't think I'm just some stalker who's trying to talk to you. You may not figure out who I am, and I'm not going to tell you who I am, but I want you to know this. I've had a crush on you for some time now, and I just wanted to get it off of my chest. You're honestly the sweetest guy I know, and I'm not really comfortable with telling you this in person. I will eventually come out and do that, but don't expect it to be soon. Thank you for reading this note. -from: anonymous.

I looked up from the note after I read it and smiled. I folded it up again and stuck it underneath my bed. I then left to join the others in the living room.

 


	5. The Secret of Sanctums!

 

* * *

 **Grace Family House, (3rd Person):**  
  
Inside the house of the Grace family, all seemed peaceful as usual, not unlike the typical morning, everyone was sound asleep and there was no sign of any sort of disturbance. Inside the room of our heroes, Austin and Ally, the two were sound asleep in each others' arms like usual, peacefully awaiting the morning rays of the sun to start their day. That's when he showed up.  
  
Unnoticed and unheard, an eerie purple fog-like puff of smoke suddenly appeared in the room. The smoke itself was not of the usual sort, refusing to spread throughout the room, as if it wasn't a substance at all. Then, as the smoke dissipated, a figure in a dark hooded robe stepped out, looking around the room so as to eliminate the possibility of being seen. Noticing no sign of a threat, the cloaked predator let down his hood, revealing his identity. Shade looked over at Austin and Ally and frowned. "Hmm, to think a potentially talented wizard, a child even, should have to pay the price for her parents' wrongdoings, it truly saddens me." He began in a calm, hushed whisper that seemed to resonate throughout the room. He turned his head toward the door and scowled.  
  
"Ella, Shard...I pity you for your pathetic attempt to protect your daughter, but did you really think that hiding her away in some small town and running away like cowards would keep me from getting my revenge? You abandoned her like my father abandoned me." He then turned his attention to Austin. "And you, so called hero. You've been a thorn in my side ever since you prevented me from doing this earlier. Some kid who suddenly appears to thwart my plans, I'm afraid you've had your fate intertwined with that of your girlfriend's." He continued in the same calm tone.  
  
He proceeded to raise his arms into the air and began to mutter something under his breath, and not a second later a deep black orb appeared in mid-air. The orb began to grow at an incredibly fast rate until it was at the size of a beach ball, the air around it became distorted and it created a draft that caused our heroes to stir.  
  
(Austin:)  
It was early in the morning when I felt a strange draft in our room, which didn't seem to be too strange until I heard an incredibly loud screeching sound directly in front of us. My eyes opened and I bolted up from my sleeping position instantly to see Shade creating what looked like a huge black orb of some kind and it was directed at us. I immediately put myself in front of Ally. "Ally, you better wake up!" I said as I tried to shake her awake. It didn't seem like Shade had completed his curse yet.  
  
"Hmm? What's going on? Austin, why are you waking me up so early in the morning?" She said sleepily before she noticed what was going on. "Austin?" She said in a scared tone. I could noticeably see her tremble.  
  
I turned just in time to see Shade launch the magical ball at us before I attempted to shield Ally with my body. The ball exploded not a second later, but it never made an impact, well, at least with us. As soon as I realized that we had not been hit, I opened my eyes and turned around to find that we were completely surrounded by a pink colored force-field like barrier.  
  
"Uhh...what just..." I was about to say when I caught a glimpse of my chest to find that it was shining the same shade of pink as the barrier. Amazingly, this was the same for Ally. It looked almost as if the light emitting from the both of us was connected in some way.  
  
"Ally, look." I said to the still cowering eevee who hadn't yet noticed this strange phenomenon. She looked around with the same level of bewilderment on her face as I had. "W-what is this?" She asked me. Shade looked like he was about to blow a fuse.  
  
"What? Impossible! That curse was supposed to be unstoppable. That's...that's not even a...a spell at all. What is that?!" Shade looked genuinely scared for a moment. He glared at me menacingly. "Ugh, no matter, you've only prolonged your destruction Allyson Grace! And you boy, you're next!" He said before he disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke. It was at that moment that Ella and Shard burst into the room, followed by Alex, Eve, and the others. By this time, the barrier had already dissipated, leaving us sitting up in our bed looking completely perplexed.  
  
"Ally, Austin, are you ok?! What happened? We heard shouting and we came running." Ella asked frantically as she hugged Ally, checking her all over for injuries. It was clear to me that she was scared out of her mind, she must have felt something was wrong.  
  
"Yes Mom we're ok. We're not hurt. Shade appeared and tried to attack us while we were sleeping. I don't know exactly what he did." Ally tried to explain but Ella didn't seem to hear anything past us not being hurt.  
  
"No you're not ok. He used a level fifteen curse that should have killed you upon impact! I didn't even know he was capable of doing that. How...how did you avoid that?" She explained frantically. Shard attempted to calm her down, which was at least a little affective.  
  
"I...I don't know. There, there was this pink barrier that appeared and protected us from that curse. When I looked down at my chest, it was glowing the same shade of pink and so was Ally's. The light itself was connected between us and my guess was that it had something to do with the barrier. Other than that, I have no idea what happened." Ella and Shard exchanged curious looks.  
  
"I think we might know just what that is." Ella responded as she took an ancient looking book from a bookshelf on the wall and proceeded to flip through, stopping seemingly halfway.  
  
"Ok so the phenomenon you described is extremely rare, it...wait, this can't be...that's impossible..." She faded off.  
  
"What's is it Mom?" Ally asked her. It wasn't usual for Ella to react in this sort a way, at least in my knowledge.  
  
"Well it doesn't get its rare quality from the condition of true love between wizards, which is quite common in most magical phenomena of this general description. Trust me, there are a lot of strange magical qualities that can come from love. What makes it rare is that it can only be triggered if those two wizards' parents or grand parents are both inherent wizards, but that shouldn't be possible for you two because magic isn't present in Austin's world, the human world. Since this is true, there is no way his family could possess magic.  
  
"Oh but I don't think it's that simple now is it my dear friend?" Said a voice from behind us. We turned around just in time to see Ninetales appear in the same fashion as Shade had disappeared in moments before.  
  
"Ninetales? What brings you here? We haven't seen you in quite some time." Ella greeted with a surprised tone. Ninetales smiled and turned her attention to me.  
  
"I believe our little meteor hero was of the subject. And the magic barrier?" She answered surprisingly. Noticing our surprised faces, she laughed. "And if your wondering how I know all of this, you see, I had a major role in the creation of the teleport gem that Austin and Ally still have in their possession. Alakazam and Xatu could only tell you as much as psychic energy, but the teleport gem itself is pure magic. Since I'm its creator, I can hear practically anything that goes on around it whenever I need to, and I'm kind of on edge from the recent disruption of time." She explained.  
  
"So why are you here then?" Ally asked her in confusion. Up until now, the possibility of Ninetales having any magical ability other than cursing those who touch her tails was unheard of, so the grounds of her knowing about the barrier were startling.  
  
"I have information that I believe Austin would be interested to hear, and it would also explain your confusion on this barrier phenomenon that I am all too familiar with." She replied, peaking my interest.  
  
"What do you mean?" I asked her. If this had to do with the barrier, then why would it interest me in particular? I couldn't really see where this was going, but something about the way she said it excited me.  
  
"Well, it is true that magic is not present in your world, and your parents couldn't have possessed magic because of this...unless of course they were brought here. In which case...I brought them here."  
It was easy to say that that was a shock to everyone in the room.  
  
"Wait, my parents were here before?" I asked her. She nodded. "But how would that explain the barrier? It said that they had to be inherent wizards."  
  
"Oh yes, well while it is true that magic isn't present in the human world, that doesn't mean it is non-existent there. Xerneas, the entity of magic, felt that humans should never use magic, fearing that a majority of them would misuse its power for selfish purposes, so he placed a magic seal on the world to prevent its use. Your parents were always wizards. Their magic was simply suppressed by the seal and when I brought them here, the seal was broken." She explained. "Your development of magic, however, was not inherent so you are the only human in my knowledge that has not been affected by Xerneas' seal."  
  
"Wait, why would you bring my parents here?" I asked her, wanting desperately to know anything about them. Ninetales seemed pained by this, as if my mere curiosity saddened her.  
  
"I am afraid that I cannot disclose any information on that topic. It is simply something for another time." She replied solemnly with a sigh. I couldn't help but feel that she was hiding much more than that. A moment of silence passed through the room. "Well, I think it's about time that I get going. If I'm not mistaken, you guys have a guild to get to." She continued as she turned to leave.  
  
"Can I at least know their names?" I asked quickly, stopping her in her tracks. There was a pause, in which I could practically feel her guilt. Without turning around, she replied.  
  
"Their names are Samuel and Emma." She then walked out of the room. Needless to say, my mind was a whirlwind of thoughts and questions given this new development. My parents know about this world, or at least they have been here before. And for Ninetales to bring them here, they must've been needed for something pretty important. So many questions were running through my mind at the moment that I didn't even notice Ally waving her paw in front of my face trying to get my attention. Apparently, I had spaced out.  
  
"Hey, Austin...hun? Are you ok? We need to leave now or we're gonna be late for the guild's morning briefing. We don't need Chatot yelling at us, I'm sure things are already hectic since we didn't check in last night." Said Ally, sounding worried. As it seemed, Alex, Eve and the others had all gone to their rooms to get ready to walk back to the guild.  
  
"Huh, oh, yeah I'm ok, I was just thinking about what Ninetales said, that's all." I replied. Ally looked at me guiltily.  
  
"Austin, do you ever think about, you know, going back to your world to be with your parents?" She asked me, sounding depressed.  
  
"Huh? Well, um...Ally, of course I want to meet them...again, but I wouldn't dream of leaving you even if I never get to." I replied in an effort to lift her spirits, but it only seemed to make things worse.  
  
"Look Austin, I don't want to be the one to hold you back if you want to meet your parents, I know how it feels to wonder what your parents are like, and I just can't be that person." She looked like she was on the verge of tears. I didn't know she felt this way.  
  
"Ally, look at me." She did as told. I held her paw to support her so I could talk to her at eye level. "There's a difference between you and your parents and me and mine. That difference is that you remember them and given that, you would do anything to find them as long as they were alive. I however do not remember my parents or anything else for the matter. I have nothing to go back to, so the one person that I would do anything to be with..." I said as I stared into her emerald green eyes. "Is you." And with that, I used my free arm to pull her close as we gently pressed our lips together for a short, passionate kiss.  
  
After we pulled away there was a brief pause during which we just stared at each other. Then, all too suddenly, Ally cracked a smile, laughing cutely. "Since when did you become the most important person in my life?" She asked me, never dropping that smile an inch.  
  
"I don't know, you tell me, sweetheart." I replied, smiling just the same. We were interrupted by someone clearing their throat in the doorway.  
  
"Don't you two lovebirds have somewhere to be?" It was Shard and he was giving me a harsh look, making me think that he had seen Ally and I kiss. This was controversial to Ella, who seemed to be perfectly happy about it.  
  
"Oh, um...yeah I...guess so. Let's go Ally." I said out of embarrassment as we left the room. As we left though, I could hear Ella talking about how happy she was for Ally. This truly was where I belonged.

* * *

 **Wigglytuff's Guild, Alex's POV:**   
  
Well after that rather....eventful morning, we rushed back to the guild early in an attempt to sneak in, only to find that the gates were shut. So much for that, though I guess we should have known they wouldn't open them this early. Man, Chatot's not gonna be happy. "Well the gates are closed, I guess we'll have to step on the grate and have Loudred open them. Let's just hope they're already awake." I told the group. I wasn't sure what time Loudred woke us up every morning because his outrageously loud voice was disorienting and there wasn't a clock in our crew room.  
  
Eve just groaned. "Ugh, do we have to? I really don't feel like listening to Chatot yell at us for missing morning assembly, much less for not coming in last night." She complained. I couldn't help but smile at that. Most people would probably find Eve's personality to be overwhelming or obnoxious, but I found the way Eve acts to be quite cute.  
  
Just as soon as I thought that, my face paled. I remembered the love letter that she had obviously written and slipped under the door to deliver to me last night. If she wasn't just toying with me, which was very unlikely, then she really liked me. That alone was enough to make me nervous. I wanted to tell her how I felt, but of course it wouldn't be that easy. As calm and confident as I may be, when it comes to this kind of thing, I'm not exactly an expert. Eve had also given me the letter in hopes that I would not know she had written it, so I didn't want to ruin that either. It was pretty clear that I would just have to look for an appropriate time to tell her and hope that I wouldn't mess it up.  
  
"Umm, hey Alex? You ok there?" Asked Austin in a worried voice, snapping me out of my thoughts. It seemed as if I had zoned out for a moment and he had been trying to get my attention.  
  
"Huh? Oh um...sorry. I must have zoned out for a bit there." I answered him out of embarrassment. I turned to the group. "Eve, why don't you go ahead and step onto the grate? I need to um...talk to Austin about something important about the team." I asked Eve nervously. She shot me some odd looks, eyebrow raised...not convinced. I guess I could see why though, that last sentence sounded a little unsure. I cast a pleading glance over in Austin's direction so as to say 'help me' and it seemed as though he got the message.  
  
"Um, yeah Eve, it'll just be a sec. We need to further evaluate how we're gonna make this whole 'two group' thing work out before we bring it up to Chatot. It's not exactly easy to do." He covered. I was impressed, he was pretty good at that, not that lying was a good thing in most situations.  
  
Eve just rolled her eyes. "Alex, you know if you're hiding something from me, I'll find out sooner or later." She said before walking off. Austin quietly laughed at that.  
  
"Dude, seriously. What is so important that you have to hide it from Eve? If you hide something from her and she finds out about it it's not gonna be good for you if it involves her." He questioned with the same laugh. I just looked at him in a serious manner. "Woah. Hey, Alex. I promise I won't tell anyone ok. Now out with it, it's not gonna take long for Eve to get her footprint analyzed and have the gate opened for us. I let out a sigh as I reached down and unzipped a secret compartment of the treasure bag and pulled out Eve's letter, proceeding to hand it to him. He eyed it suspiciously before he opened it and read through it.  
  
After reading through it, he folded it up and handed it back to me, to which I placed it back in its proper spot in the treasure bag. "Yep, that's Eve's hand, or paw-writing. And from the looks of it, Ally's suspicions about Eve liking you are correct." He spoke up with a smile. "And I assume you want to tell her you like her back?"  
  
I blushed. "Well, of course I do, but-" I tried to say but he cut me off.  
  
"No buts! Do you want to be with her or not?" I tried hard not to laugh at how ridiculous he sounded.   
  
"Yes of course, it's just that I want the moment I tell her to be special. Eve's a unique girl. Her personality, well it's kind of hard to describe, but over the time that I've known her, I've found that her past experiences have made her self-esteem extremely fragile. Knowing this she may say or do things she doesn't mean to keep it up. I just feel like she deserves someone who can fix that problem and help her feel comfortable being herself. I don't want her to continue to dwell on her bad past, even though I don't even know a thing about it, and confessing under special circumstances certainly can't hurt." I explained. Austin just smiled.  
  
"Hmm, ya know Alex, I think Eve may have just found that someone you were talking about." He said with a wink. I couldn't help but smile. "Seriously though, I can't think of anyone who would be more perfect for Eve than you. You understand her better than her own sister, her identical twin, and you've only known her for a short amount of time. You really don't need my help, but I'll see what I can do." He said with a strong pat to my back before we rejoined the others.  
  
Just as we returned to the group, the guild's front gate slid open, revealing a disapproving Loudred in the depths of the tent. He then proceeded to shout down the ladder hole. "Ugh, don't worry I found em'." It was pretty clear that he was irritated and from the looks of the make-shift bed in the corner of the tent, I'd say Chatot made him sleep up there waiting for us...oops. "And would you two care to explain why you never came back last night?" He me and Eve, agitation ever so growing in his tone.  
  
"Sorry, we went with Austin and Ally to meet Eve's parents and by the time we got back, the gates were closed. We didn't think Chatot would keep you on duty like that so by our logic, we couldn't get in without causing a commotion." I explained. Loudred just grunted at my explanation.  
  
"Yeah whatever, Chatot wants to see you anyway. Just get going." He said, rolling his eyes. We nodded as the eight of us proceeded to descend down the ladder. As it turned out, Chatot had been waiting for us on the first ground floor, and he did not look happy.  
  
"Well it seems as though you finally showed up. I do suppose it is a shame you were to late for the morning assembly." His expression turned from stern to furious. "Much less the closing of the guild last night! What were you thinking, having us worry over you like that? The guild simply doesn't have time for recruits who are slack with attendance!" Ya know, it was kind of funny how he could change from scolding, to caring, and then back to scolding so fast in one conversation. Chatot started taking in deep breaths to calm himself down enough to speak in a collected voice. "I guess I should take you to the Guildmaster to discuss this issue and register your new recruit that I see you have." He said in reference to Luke. I had almost forgotten that he was here. Then, turning around with a sigh, Chatot led us down to the lowest level of the guild and into the Guildmaster's chamber.  
  
Upon entering the room, we were greeted with Wigglytuff's usual "Hiya!" and "Hello friendly friends!" as he smiled with never-ending enthusiasm. There was something about Wigglytuff that raised the spirits of everyone around him...well, except for Chatot, who always seemed embarrassed by his friend as he shook his head, his wing resting firmly on it. "What brings you all here?" He spoke to us all with not even the slightest hint of Chatot's obvious embarrassment.  
  
Chatot looked up and proceeded to clear his throat. "Guildmaster, it seems that our new recruits failed to show up before the guild's closing last night." He explained. Wigglytuff seemed as though he had been thinking about what Chatot had just said, but I somehow doubted it. After about ten seconds of Wigglytuff just staring out into space, I snapped my fingers, seemingly waking him from a daydream.  
  
"Huh, what? Oh, right. Don't worry about that, I'm sure our friends just made a bit of a mistake and lost track of time." He turned and winked at us. Before Chatot could interject, Wigglytuff noticed Luke. "Oh and I see you have yet another friend in your group. I'll need to make another badge for you Luke!" He said to Chatot's surprise. So it seemed that he was never made aware of Luke when Wigglytuff took care of him. I guess that would make sense, Wigglytuff probably knows about magic if Ella and Shard trusted him to care for Luke and I guess they would have told him not to let anyone else know. He may even possess magic. "Chatot, would you please leave the room, I need to talk with our friends alone." He told Chatot, who didn't seem too happy about being told to leave.  
  
He then turned to us. "Now about your parents, they wanted me to give you something, so I guess it's good that Luke is here with you now." He began in a more serious tone, shocking us all in the process.  
  
"Wait, what are you talking about? What did they tell you to give us and aren't you acting a bit out of character?" Asked Eve in astonishment. Wigglytuff just laughed.  
  
"Yes I do suppose I am, but I only act like this when I need to. This is important. What I'm about to give you is something I have given the appearance of a simple guild badge, but in fact, well, I should just show you." He said as he held up what looked to be an ordinary badge. "This badge has already been preregistered to your team, just press this button and..." He said as he pushed the center button, but instead of displaying the usual functions of an exploration badge, it began to glow and it suddenly transformed into a medium sized book. Surprisingly, that was pretty normal compared to what I had seen this morning.  
  
"This is the Grace family spell book. Ally, Eve, Luke. Your parents asked me to disguise it as something so common that any evil force would never suspect a thing. They were afraid that Shade would try to steal it and use it to cause harm to Ally and Eve. It houses some quite powerful spells I must say." He said with a smile. He handed Austin the book, that he had already reverted back to the shape of a badge. "Ella and Shard should be able to show you how to do that by the way."  
  
"How do you know all of this again" Flare asked. Wigglytuff just smiled.  
  
"The Grace family isn't the only group of wizards around here." He said with a wink. "Yes Ella and Shard entrusted me with Luke's safety because I was the only other wizard in town that they knew of and I was well respected around here as the guildmaster of this guild. Why do you think the room flashes when I shout?" He laughed.  
  
"Now if I'm not mistaken, your team is too big to go on missions as a whole. This seems to present a problem." He said, mentioning something we had previously sorted out.  
  
"Oh, well that's actually something we figured we could talk to you about Wigglytuff. Is there a way we could split our team into two groups when we head out for missions and other sorts of things? We were thinking we could have Alex, Eve, Ally, and myself in one group and the others in another." I explained.  
  
Wigglytuff seemed to think this over for a second before he shouted. "Yoomtah! That's a great idea!" He regained his composure before continuing. "This would prevent you from having to leave members of your team behind at the guild, so I'm all for it. Now I believe Chatot has your next assignment lined up for you, so go ahead and meet him outside of the chamber." He finished with a smile. Eve and I turned to each other and nodded before we headed out.  
  
Upon exiting the room, we saw Chatot waiting for us by the window. It was kind of weird to hear Wigglytuff talk so seriously, knowing how he usually was. "Oh, finally you guys are done." Chatot stated in exasperation when we walked up to him. "Now, if you will, please follow me upstairs for your next assignment." He continued as he turned to lead us up to the first ground floor.  
  
"Wait, didn't you already tell us where to go for jobs?" Questioned Eve. Chatot turned back around, an impatient look on his face.  
  
"There is more to the guild's work than simply completing jobs. You'll understand once we get upstairs. Now quickly, quickly, you guys are already late as it is. We don't need a repeat of last night." With that Chatot led us up the ladder to the next floor and to a bulletin board on the left side of the room, slightly different from our first job. Upon closer inspection of the board, there seemed to be sheets of paper taped all over it like on the other side of the room, but pictures of pokémon were printed on them. The text was in a different language as well, so I really couldn't tell what these papers on the board where supposed to be. The language, I think Eve called it....footprint ruins?  
  
"Wait, what exactly is the difference between the bulletin board over here and the one over there?" I questioned Chatot, giving him an inquisitive look. "Certainly there's no significance in the location of the board and the only things that seem to be different here are the pictures and the language on the paper." Chatot looked at me strangely.  
  
"You can't read footprint ruins?" He asked me like it was common knowledge, which it probably was.  
  
"Well Alex and Austin both have amnesia so they wouldn't really know how to." Eve explained, half lying. We couldn't just go spreading the fact that Austin and I used to be human around all the time.  
  
Chatot nodded in understanding. "Well, if you could read it, then you would find out that this board is indeed for posting outlaw notices and wanted posters. The guild is not only a training facility for upcoming explorers, it is also the center of law enforcement for Treasure Town so all of our recruits are expected to be able to capture outlaws as part of their graduation program." He explained. Eve shuttered at the mentioning of the word 'outlaws'. Understanding her discomfort, I took my hand and gently pat her on the back.  
  
"Eve, it's all right. I'm sure they won't start us off with some ruthlessly evil villain. Even Austin and Ally are new to this kind of thing." I told Eve in an attempt to comfort her, but it didn't seem to have much effect.  
  
"I know, but I'm just....s-scared of b-bad pokemon. I saw what a gang of mankey did to Austin once, and I don't want that to happen to me." I didn't know what she was talking about, but judging from the looks on Austin and Ally's faces, I could make a guess about the mankey gang experience.  
  
"Now, now. There's certainly no need to worry. Outlaws are really very simple. Most are just petty thieves, it's a rare occurrence that you'd run into anyone completely brutal." He obviously had never met Shade. From what I've heard about him, he sounds pretty evil, especially given what happened this morning.  
  
Still noticing how nervous Eve was, Chatot let out a sigh. "But I suppose we could get somebody from the guild to help you pick your first target, hmm." Chatot turned towards the ladder leading downwards. "Bidoof!" A few seconds later, a small, brown beaver-like pokémon came up from the floor below, panting heavily. It looked like he ran here as fast as he could, like this was the most important job of his explorer career.  
  
"You *huff* called *huff* Chatot?" He questioned, out of breath.  
  
"Yes indeed, I would like you to help our new recruits choose an outlaw to capture seeing as it is their first time. Do you understand." The pokémon, now known as Bidoof, nodded. "Good. Well then, if you will excuse me, I have other business to attend to. The guildmaster gets kind of....let's just say greedy with our stock of perfect apples." He continued with a shutter before walking off.  
  
Bidoof turned to us, teary-eyed. "Wow, I can't believe that I get to help the Team Eviolite, especially since I'm usually the last one you'd see Chatot go to for new recruits." So, it seemed that he was the most recent recruit before us.  
  
 "So you're Bidoof. Are you one of the recent recruits here, you know, besides us?" Luke stepped up and asked him. It was kind of hard to tell, but he seemed slightly depressed by that question.  
  
"Yeah I'm actually 'the' newest recruit here if you don't count yourselves. I don't usually get to do much around here because of that." He replied, letting out a sigh. "But at least I get to work here and train to become an explorer, and meeting the most famous rescue team around is certainly a bonus!" He continued with a surprising mood swing. "Anyway, you guys are probably very familiar with the guild already and I'm sure you know your way around town, so why don't you guys go get ready for your mission, come back and I'll help you pick an outlaw to capture."  
  
"Alright we'll see you later then. Come on guys." Austin said before leading us up the ladder and out of the guild.  
  
7:30am, Crossroads, Drew's POV:  
  
Just as soon as we descended the stairs from the guild, Austin turned around to face the group. "Ok, we don't really need all eight of us to head into town to prepare, so why don't Ally, Eve, Alex and I go and get supplies while you guys do whatever you want?" He suggested to Conor, Luke, Flare and myself. Conor didn't seem to like this little "split idea" as he seemingly glared at Alex, but the rest of us were perfectly ok with it. I was starting to get a feeling that they both liked Eve, and that couldn't be good. I'm pretty sure Eve might like Alex back, and Conor just doesn't realize it.  He's a bit prone to saying things he doesn't mean when he's upset and I really don't want to see this affect his friendship with Eve. Even more so, I'm pretty sure Austin and Ally's placement of the groups was deliberate. I'm sure they probably had their own suspicions, so keeping Alex and Eve together in their group would help them meddle. Somehow I didn't see this going well for Connor.  
  
"Well, what should we do? It would just be redundant to go back to the guild now and the others are already in town getting supplies. I don't know about you guys, but I really don't feel like going to the café right now." Flare spoke up, pulling me away from my thoughts.  
  
"Hmm, well...we could go to the beach. My mom has always been telling me that it is the most beautiful place around here, especially around this time when krabby are blowing bubbles, but I've never gotten to go because she didn't want Shade to know about me." Suggested Luke. It seemed as though the Grace family had more than its share of hard times, and I thought my past was bad.  
  
"Well there's enough of us around to protect you now anyway, and I don't think Shade would try to attack twice in one day, so why not. Besides, I've been waiting to take Flare somewhere romantic for some time now. Let's go." We all nodded in agreement and headed down the path towards the beach, well, all of us except for Conor. I told the others to continue on ahead before I ran back over to him. He was still staring back in the direction the others had gone just minutes before.  
  
"Hey uh Conor. You ok man?" I asked him, worry clear in my voice. No answer. I let out a sigh, knowing exactly what was wrong. "You know you can't change how people feel." He just turned to me with a questionable look in his eyes.  
  
"What is that supposed to mean?" He asked, voice slightly raised in annoyance. I tried to remain calm to prevent an outburst from him.  
  
"Nothing, I'm just saying that Eve seems to really get along with Alex, I've never really seen someone comfort her like he does. I...I know you like her, but do you maybe think....that she could like him?" I probably shouldn't have said that. His eyes went wide.  
  
"No. She. Doesn't!" He shouted in anger. "What can possibly make you think that?! He hasn't known her for as long as I have. Eve and I bonded a month ago. She's my best friend, surely you noticed how close we are, and you think that she has feelings for someone she just met?!" I had a feeling he'd react in this sort of way.  
  
I let out a sigh. "Yes, I...have my suspicions. But if it's true you have to let her decide who she wants to be with. You can't act like this around her or you'll risk hurting her. Do you really want to do that?" I really didn't want him to act like this in front of Eve. They really did have a unique friendship and things like this often had catastrophic affects on trust, even the friendship itself if it was bad enough.  
  
There was a brief pause before he replied. "I'm done talking about this. Let's go catch up with the others." He said before he turned around. I could have sworn I saw tears in his eyes. I really did feel bad for him. Regardless, we headed off for the beach.  
  
8:00am, Beach, Flare's POV:  
  
I had been sitting on the soft, warm sand of the beach for nearly ten minutes, watching as the waves of the ocean gently pushed water toward me, hoping that the tide didn't rise and get me soaked with water, which of course it did. I didn't really mind water, which was quite controversial to others of my type. I couldn't really explain it, but to me, the feeling of water was soothing, almost as if it were healing me. Of course this didn't mean I wanted to get wet. My body's inner flame didn't really help to keep me warm when I was wet and this cold January weather wasn't exactly inviting.  
  
I was starting to worry about Drew and Connor, seeing that they had been gone for a while. Drew had said he'd be right with us, he just had to see what was wrong with Connor. My worries were soon put to rest when I saw the two walking onto the beach from the path to my right. I couldn't really tell, but Connor seemed really upset. As the two came closer, they split, Drew coming to me and Connor walking off to be by himself. I gave Drew a confused look to which he just let out a sigh. "Conor's upset because I told him that I had suspicions that Eve liked Alex and, well, Conor...he likes Eve." He explained to me. I stared off in Conor's direction with worry.  
  
"Do you think Alex likes her back?" I asked him, to which he nodded. "Yeah, those two really get along and I think they'd make a cute couple. I just...hope this doesn't affect Connor's friendship with Eve."  
  
I never really expected something like this to happen in our team, and it was worrying me. Fighting in teams was never a good thing, and from what Drew was telling me, I'm sure Conor and Alex aren't too far from fighting over Eve. At least they have team mates to help keep them from doing that.  
  
Drew suddenly put his arm around me and pulled me close. I leaned against him, resting my head on his chest as we looked out at sea, watching the ocean waves.  
  
At one point, a mudkip, a growlithe, and a zorua came walking onto the beach. They had walked close enough for me to hear them out of ear-shot, though that's not to say I was eavesdropping, I had simply overheard something that peaked my interest.  
  
"Seriously Flint, thanks for agreeing to go with me to the guild to form a team, it's always been a dream of mine." the mudkip said to the growlithe, now known as Flint, before she kissed him on the cheek. The two must've been a couple from the looks of that little gesture.  
  
"Of course Mari. I'd do anything for a friend, in this case girlfriend, besides it looks like it'll be pretty cool to do and it might help us find out something about..." That last part was drowned out by the waves, but the mudkip's name was Mari. The zorua didn't speak however. I decided we should show these new recruits to the guild since we really didn't have anything else to do and Connor needed something to get his mind off of Eve. I shared my thoughts with Drew, we gathered the others, and we approached the three pokémon.  
  
"Hey, we couldn't help but overhear. You three want to join the guild?" I asked the three as we did so, resulting in some odd glances.  
  
"Yes we do, but if you don't mind, who are you?" The mudkip known as Mari asked. I guess approaching without an introduction wasn't exactly proper, but what did I know? I didn't really grow up with parents to show me how to deal with anything like that, all I had was Drew for the past twelve years of my life. I didn't remember my parents.  
  
"Oh sorry. I'm Flare." I introduced. "This is Connor, that's Luke, and my boyfriend Drew." I finished, pointing to each of them. "We're Team Eviolite, one of the exploration teams from Wigglytuff's Guild, or rather half of it I should say. Our other members, Austin, Ally, Alex and Eve are in town gathering supplies for one of our missions." I seriously hope I did that right. The growlithe, known as Flint, spoke next.  
  
"Ok, nice to meet you, I think I've heard of Austin and Ally before though. Didn't they stop that meteor or something?" He asked us. It seemed as if people would be talking about that for a long time now, everywhere even, but it was understandable. They did save the world.  
  
"Yeah that's them, we decided to join the guild after Ally's sister, Eve, left to do so. Anyway, why don't you guys follow us to the guild, we were just about to go back there anyway." Mari and Flint nodded in agreement.  
  
"Ok sure. Oh and I'm Mari, this is my boyfriend Flint, and over here is Thomas." Mari introduced.  
  
"Nice to meet you guys." Thomas greeted. He seemed to be looking at Luke curiously, but it was probably just my imagination. After that it was just a matter of walking back to the guild.  
  
8:00am, Treasure Town, Alex's POV:  
  
After parting ways from Drew, Flare, Conor and Luke, we continued our trip into town. Austin had already informed us that the Keckleon Market had everything we needed so there was no point in going to any of the other shops that were set up around the town, but of course Eve had other ideas as she practically dragged me from shop to shop. I looked to Austin and Ally for help, only to find that they were nowhere to be found.  
  
"Uhh, Eve, shouldn't we catch up to Austin and Ally?" I asked her as I waved my hand in front of her face to get her attention. She turned to me, head tilted to one side in confusion.  
  
"Huh, wait. Where did they? Oh..." She said with a laugh. "Sorry, I must've gotten carried away with all of the shops around here." She kept glancing over in the direction of one of the shops that happened to have a rainbow-colored bow on display. It was obvious that she wanted that bow, and even more so that she was starting to collect them.  
  
"Hey um, Eve. Why don't you go catch up with Austin and Ally? I'll be right behind you, I just have to take care of something real quick." I told her in an excuse to get away. She didn't look like she bought it, giving me a sly smile in reply. This of course made me blush.  
  
"Why? Something you gotta do?" She said slyly with a wink, the smile turning into a smirk. My blush deepened. I really hoped she didn't notice, but knowing her, she didn't miss a thing.  
  
After a while with no response from me, she simply let out a cute laugh. "Fine, fine. Don't tell me. I'll just figure it out on my own. You know you can't hide anything from me for long." She smiled as she turned around, playfully smacking me in the face with her tail in the process, before walking off, glancing back only for a second to tease me.  
  
My face was so red now that I was practically unrecognizable as a snivy, or any grass type for the matter. Eve, how could she be so timid yet manage to flirt with me like that? Just the thought of it made me laugh to myself as I walked over to the shop to buy the bow.

* * *

 

 **Keckleon Market, Alex's POV:**   
  
Immediately following my purchase of the bow, I quickly stashed it in the treasure bag and headed in the direction of the others. Keckleon Market was the name of the shop we were going to get our supplies from. Apparently, every team made a habit out of frequenting the small store supposedly due to the variety of useful items it had to offer. Not too long after I had left the shop where I had bought Eve's gift, I began to see her figure come into view. Austin and Ally were conversing with who appeared to be two keckleon, as the name of their shop would imply, while Eve stood behind them, looking around impatiently. I smiled to myself as I walked over to her.  
  
"You never can be patient can you?" I asked her, just a hint of smugness in my voice. She swiftly turned her head to me in surprise, as if she hadn't noticed me walk up. Calming down, she rolled her eyes and smiled at me cutely, radiant pink eyes as beautiful as the daylight. She put on one of her famous "sassy" expressions, noticeably readying some sort of playful retort.  
  
"Well how can I when my best friend is acting so suspicious?" She remarked, playfully and taunting. I wasn't really expecting what she did next. She leapt toward me and gave me a tight hug around the neck, seemingly not wanting to let me go. She pulled away after a while with a nervous look on her face. "Just, please don't....please don't stay behind alone again." She said, seemingly on the verge of tears. Noticing my confused look, she explained. "Austin and Ally were talking about Shade and how he'd do anything to hurt Ally and me, and that includes hurting you. If he can't hurt me directly, he could go after you and..." She didn't finish that sentence, less she'd risk crying in front of everyone. She took a deep breath to calm down. "I just think we should stay together just to be safe." She finished as she hugged me again. What she had already said had said it all, so I simply returned the hug.  
  
"Alright. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere." I whispered gently into her ear. At this point, I didn't care who Shade was or how dangerous he was, I was starting to get annoyed at how he was starting to affect Eve. And even though I lacked magic, I would not step aside and let him hurt her.  
  
"Anyway, the Keckleon brothers ended up having just what we needed. No wonder this place is popular with the other teams." She continued, letting me go. At that moment, a maril and azuril walked up to the shop.  
  
"Why hello Maril and Azuril. What brings you two here today?" Said the green keckleon, who I was told was named Cam.  
  
"Hi Mr. Cam and Mr. Leon. We came to buy a few apples. Our mother is sick, so she sent us to do the shopping." Explained Maril, who payed for two apples as she was handed them. The two walked off joyfully soon after. Cam and Leon turned to us.  
  
"Ahh those two tikes. Such inspiring children, stepping up to aid their mother like that. You don't see many children of their age with the ability to take charge like that. It's quite admirable." I had to agree, it certainly was admirable to see young kids do things like that. Suddenly, Maril and Azuril came running back to the shop at a hurried pace. "Maril and Azuril, whatever is the matter?" Cam and Leon ask, worry in their voices.  
  
"Oh, no. Don't worry, it's nothing bad, it's just that you gave us an extra apple. We didn't pay for that many." Maril explained. Cam laughed heartily in response.  
  
"No no. That's ok, the extra apple was a gift to you from my brother and I. Share it between the two of you." He said with a smile. These guys really were generous.  
  
"Wow, thank you Mr. Cam and Leon!" The two exclaimed in excitement. "Well we have to get going now, mom will worry about us. Come on Azuril, let's go. Bye Cam and Leon." Said Maril as she led Azuril back towards the central part of town, only for Azuril to trip and drop the extra apple that the keckleon brothers had gifted to the two. I walked over and picked it up, dusting it off in the process before handing it over to the thankfully unharmed azuril, who had picked herself up just as quickly as she had fallen.  
  
"Oh, umm, t-thank y-you umm..." She started.  
  
"Alex." I finished as I handed her the apple. "Now be more careful there alright? We don't need you getting hurt." I said, a gentle smile upon my face. I realized that my naturally calm and silent composure could have looked quite intimidating to someone so young, so I tried to make my voice seem as warm as possible when I said that. It seemed to work.  
  
"Oh ok, thank you Mr. Alex!" She responded, perking up. Suddenly, I felt dizzy. There was a slight head-ache like sensation before I heard an intense 'ringing in my ears' and my vision went black. I had no idea what was going on, the only thing I could tell was what I could hear, and that was a familiar voice. Azuril's to be exact.  
  
"H-h-heeeeeelp!" Her voice seemed to shout out, but from seemingly nowhere, as if I were imagining it. Was this a dream, or yet some other strange phenomenon? I couldn't tell, I couldn't even see. After a few seconds, the strange 'vision', or whatever you could call it, ended and my vision returned to normal. Apparently, no one had noticed that I had zoned out momentarily, and Maril and Azuril had already left.  
  
"Alex, are you ok?" Eve asked me from behind, nearly making me jump in surprise.  
  
"Huh? Oh, umm....yeah, yeah I'm fine. What would make you think I'm not fine? I'm totally fine." I rambled. I guess I was still pretty shaken up from whatever that was that had happened. Eve laughed at my silliness.  
  
"Wow, what's up with you? You sound like you've seen a ghost or something." She joked. She tilted her head in confusion. "Seriously Alex, are you alright? What's the problem?" She asked, this time, worry began to show in her voice, so I decided to tell her, not that I expected her to believe me. It wasn't all that clear to me, and I experienced it.  
  
I walked a few feet away from Austin and Ally, Eve following, so I could tell her in private. "Well you know when I gave Azuril back her apple after she dropped it?" Eve nodded. "Well immediately after I spoke to her, I had this sort of, well, 'dizzy spell' or whatever and I heard a scream, and it sounded exactly like Azuril."  
  
I could see that Eve thought I was joking. Only seconds later did her smile fall, seeing that I was completely serious. Now she seemed as confused as I was. "You mean to tell me you saw, or heard, a vision of Azuril screaming? For one thing, that's a little vague to be of any importance, and two, couldn't you have just imagined it? I mean, magic is one thing, well, not really, but at least we know it's going on. I've certainly never heard of a physic pokémon, even in fairy tales." She reasoned. I let out a sigh, of course she wouldn't believe me. It couldn't have been my imagination though. People don't just randomly imagine something such as a sound and a loss of vision, that would be a hallucination at best and I'm pretty sure I wasn't poisoned or dehydrated. Eve seemed to notice my depressed expression (apparently I'm not so good at concealing my emotions) and a soft smile formed on her face.  
  
"Look, Alex, I believe you heard something, don't get me wrong. Let's just put it aside for now. Maril and Azuril are fine right now, so let's go get the others and head back to the guild. Ok?" I was relieved to say the least, at least Eve didn't think I had gone insane, but something about that 'vision' just didn't real right. Nonetheless, we walked back over to Austin and Ally.  
  
"Hey guys, so what were you two up to over there?" Ally asked slyly as we approached, making us both blush from embarrassment. Sometimes I regretted telling Austin I liked Eve. I knew he'd tell Ally and this kind of thing would soon follow.  
  
"Nothing important, just talking about the mission. So are we ready to go?" Eve asked, dodging the question. They nodded in confirmation.  
  
"I believe so, we should hurry and find Bidoof. He should be waiting for us at the guild to help us pick an outlaw. Drew, Flare and the others are probably already there, so let's go." Austin replied. We said goodbye to the keckleon brothers and began making our way back to the central part of town.  
  
When we reached the square, we noticed Maril and Azuril talking to what looked to be a drowsie. We walked over to them.  
  
"Yay! Thank you Mr. Drowsie!" Maril and Azuril cheered happily as we walked up.  
  
"Hey, it's no problem. Who wouldn't want to help kids like you?" Drowsie said in response to the gleeful water types.  
  
"Hey guys, what going on?" Eve asked, taking the two sisters' attention. They smiled.  
  
"Oh hi Eve, Austin, Ally, and Alex! See, we lost an item called the water float a while ago and it's very important to us. Mr. Drowsie here said he saw it somewhere and agreed to take us there." She explained, excitement clear in my tone. For me however, that sentence sent up so many 'red flags'. I didn't think it was such a good idea for these two kids to go off alone with this guy they barely knew. He seemed nice, but then again, looks can be deceiving. Unfortunately, the others seemed to think it was perfectly fine.  
  
"Oh, well good for you two then." Ally told them, an enthusiastic smile upon her face. I guess pokémon were just more naturally trusting of each other than humans, but something about the guy just unnerved me.  
  
"Ok well we should probably get going so we can find your item. Come on you two." He said as the three began walking past us, only for Drowsie to bump into me, casually apologizing, before following after Maril and Azuril. From his tone though, it sounded almost as if he had meant exactly nothing by the apology.  
  
I put my hand to my head as a sudden, familiar dizzying pain came to it, though curiously, this time my vision didn't go black. I found myself in what appeared to be the floor of a dungeon, staring at Drowsie and...Azuril? "Ugh, seriously. Would you just be quiet?! No one can hear you. How many times do I have to tell you that?! Now if you don't do as I say, and I have to repeat myself one more time, we're gonna have a problem, and things are not gonna be good for you!" Drowsie yelled at a cowering Azuril forcefully in a threatening manner. Azuril just scooted back, closer to a nearby wall and started screaming, just like what a I had heard before: "H-h-h-heeeelllp!"  
  
And with that, the vision ended and reality came crashing back to me. Apparently, I had lost my balance and Austin had to support me. Eve looked worried, or was it scared. I couldn't really tell, I had done this twice already, and this was the first time she had noticed it. It wasn't just the loss of balance though, I had apparently lost consciousness for the duration of the vision.  
  
"Woah, Alex are you alright there? You kind of collapsed on us." Austin asked me as he helped me regain my stability. Man, if this is going to happen all the time, I hope I get used to it so that doesn't happen, or else I'm gonna get a lot of concussions.  
  
"Ugh, yeah I'm fine. I just had another vision or whatever." I answered, not wanting to keep any secrets. They looked confused, though I couldn't blame them, I would be too. Eve was relatively calm in response to what I had just said, but that would make sense since I had already told her about the previous 'vision'.  
  
"What do you mean by "vision"? Like a psychic vision or what?" Austin asked, still quite confused. I sighed as I began to explain.  
  
"When we were over at the Keckleon Market, I had this sort of vision in which I heard Azuril screaming for help. I told Eve about it, and we decided to leave it alone just thinking I could have imagined it. But just now I had one in which I saw Drowsie threatening to hurt Azuril. And they all start off with this weird dizzying pain." I explained to them. That's where everyone got confused again.  
  
"Wait, what? You said you saw Drowsie...threatening Azuril? No, that can't be right. Are you sure you didn't imagine that?" Ally asked me. Ok, I could understand why it could be thought that I would imagine a scream, but loosing consciousness and seeing something is another story.  
  
"Really? I get this huge head-ache, loose my balance and faint, and you think what I saw was my imagination? People don't just randomly do that you know. It's obvious that I have some weird ability, either that or I'm crazy and I'm pretty sure we can eliminate that from the list. Besides, it was pretty irresponsible of us to just let Maril and Azuril walk away with that guy anyway." I responded curtly. I was getting quite annoyed with how this was playing out for me. Ally didn't look too thrilled with my response, in fact, she looked like she wanted to shoot a shadow ball straight at my face. Luckily, Austin intervened.  
  
"Hey, hey, come on. There's no reason for argument. Besides, Alex is right. We didn't really know who that guy was, and Maril and Azuril are just kids. But he did seem nice, and if this guy were truly bad, why would he let himself be seen straight out in the center of town like that. Certainly if he was the guild would have heard of him. I'm sure Maril and Azuril are fine, now why don't we go find the others and go pick an outlaw with Bidoof, ok?" He reasoned. I looked over toward Eve who simply nodded. I let out a sigh, reluctantly giving in. I know I saw what I saw. Hopefully my vision was wrong.

* * *

 **Wigglytuff's Guild, Eve's Pov:**   
  
"What do you mean you won't let me join the guild?!" Someone shouted as we descended the ladder to the first floor of the guild. That 'someone' was apparently a mudkip, female by the sound of her voice. Standing by her looking quite embarrassed was a growlithe of around the same age as well as a zorua. She was talking, almost shouting, to Chatot who was seemingly unimpressed.  
  
"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that we do not allow parolees to join our guild. It is simply a rule that we must follow. It's also true for our members. If they are found guilty of any crime, they are suspended or even kicked out. That's just the way things work around here." Chatot replied calmly. I saw Connor and the others standing over to the side, watching as this went on so I walked up to them.  
  
"Hey guys, what's going on here?" I asked them as I walked over to them, the others quietly following behind.  
  
"Oh hey, see those two? We brought them to the guild because we overheard them at the beach saying they wanted to form a team. Apparently, one of them is on parole and Chatot won't let her join. Their names are Mari, the mudkip, Flint, the growlithe and Thomas, the zorua." Drew explained. Connor seemed distant for some reason, though I didn't ask why. He disregard his privacy.   
  
"What? Surely there's a way I can join. I-I-I've always wanted to be an explorer." The mudkip known as Mari pleaded, but Chatot didn't let up.  
  
"I'm sorry, but this is not an establishment that accepts those who have committed crimes in the past. Now please go, our guild doesn't have time for disruptions. And if you won't leave, we'll just have to have officer Magnizone deal with you." Chatot finished. That statement made Mari cringe in fear. I turned to see Austin, who didn't look very happy with what was going on. Uh-oh.  
  
Austin walked over to the center of the room. "Ok, ok seriously Chatot. The rule is one thing and it's...well not very understandable, but threatening a parolee with police confrontation is a little harsh don't ya think? Not to mention that that would probably be a parole violation and she'd be imprisoned."  
  
"Excuse me?" Chatot asked in an accusatory tone.  
  
"Chatot, look. This is stupid. It's not a big deal. Why can't you just let her into the guild. And don't you tell me there's a rule against it because Wigglytuff makes the rules and I'm pretty sure he didn't make that one." It was clear that this had really annoyed him, and he wasn't giving up. Mari and Flint just stood behind him, looking surprised that someone in the guild was standing up for them, or rather Mari.  
  
"Because we simply cannot risk the integrity of this guild. If one of our own were to be arrested, how would that make us look? I'm simply trying to protect the name of the guild, and even though it saddens me, I cannot allow this girl to join." Chatot admitted with a business-like composure. Austin gave a sly smile, as if he had gotten the chance for victory he was waiting for.  
  
"Well then, why don't I just go ask Wigglytuff what he thinks about you refusing to let a "friend" join his guild? I'm sure that would make him very happy." He smirked. Chatot lost his calm composure.  
  
"W-w-what? Certainly you wouldn't. Chatot responded, fear prevalent in his voice. Austin just raised an eyebrow, as if to say, "try me". After a few seconds of stand-off silence, Chatot finally let out a sigh, admitting defeat. "Fine, fine. Mari can join the guild. Just keep what I said away from the guildmaster's ears. He might just try to explode mine." He said as he flew off. Wow, and I thought no one could outsmart Chatot.  
  
We all walked over to him as he walked over to Mari and Flint. "Wow umm....thanks umm..." Mari started to thank him.  
  
"Austin, and your welcome. Yeah, I don't like it when good people aren't allowed to do something because of who they are, but don't blame Chatot, he's just trying to run the place. It's how he is." Austin finished for her.  
  
"Oh, ok. But how did you know we were good people? I am a parolee, that's no lie." Mari asked him.  
  
Austin let out a laugh. "My friends, and teammates, led you here to join the guild. I trust their judgement. And you don't exactly look like criminals to begin with." He replied. "Anyway, I assume Drew and the others told you our team name?" They nodded.  
  
"I've heard about you and Ally before. You stopped that meteor a while ago so I'm pretty sure nearly everyone does." Flint spoke up.  
  
"Wow, people are still stalking about that? To be honest, sometimes it gets annoying when everybody recognizes you." Austin responded with a laugh. "Anyway, this is Eve, and that's Alex." He said, pointing to both of us. "Now that you've met all of us, you should probably go down the ladder over there to the guildmaster's chamber so he can sign you up as members."  
  
"Alright, see you guys later I guess." Flint replied as they walked down the ladder. We walked over to Bidoof who was still quietly standing in the corner with the outlaw notice board.  
  
"Oh hey guys, are you ready to choose an outlaw now?" He asked us as we walked up. We nodded. "Ok, well since it's your first time, maybe I should make some suggestions. Ok so let's see..." He started to say before the board suddenly flipped around.  
  
"Well that was weird. Does that usually happen?" I asked Bidoof in confusion. He nodded in confirmation.  
  
"Yes, both of the mission boards are set up on revolving panels so Dugtrio, one of our fellow guild members, can replace the old missions with new ones. This must be one of his shifts." He explained. I guess that would make sense, I mean, I never really saw someone replace the missions and they would have to come from somewhere. Pelliper didn't come here. After a few more minutes, the board flipped back around. "Ok, so let's see-" Bidoof was about to say before I cut him off, seeing the picture on the poster located at the top left section of the board. I couldn't believe it, it was Drowsie. I began shaking, but not in fear, in anger.  
  
"Eve? Are you ok?" Alex asked me, worry forming in his voice.  
  
"Alex, look at that poster. T-the one on the top to the left." Everyone looked to the poster and gasped. We turned to each other. "We need to go now, Alex was right, Azuril is in danger!" I said as we all ran out of the guild, leaving Bidoof completely baffled. Too bad no one noticed that we had dropped a badge, more specifically the spell book, on the floor as we were running. It was quite interesting who had picked it up if I remember correctly.

* * *

 **Crossroads:**  
  
We dashed out of the guild to find Maril, a terrified expression upon her face, anxiously pacing around near the entrance. Immediately upon noticing us, her eyes grew wide and she rushed over to us with a look I knew all too well, fear, though not for herself, her sister. Growing up, I was constantly worrying about Ally's safety. She was always the one who liked to go out and venture outside of Evolution Forest, and I couldn't help but fear that one day she would get hurt, or worse. Given that, I could only imagine how scared this girl was, being so young.  
  
"E-e-eve! I-i-it's A-Azuril! Drowsie was leading us up Mt. B-bristle w-when I-I lost sight of them and got lost. I...I waited for them, but they didn't come out and I'm afraid something might have happened." She explained to us, stuttering and desperate, close to tears. Knowing that showing any uncertainty or timidity would only make things worse for her, I tried to keep from thinking about the level of the mission we chose to take on. Let's just say, Drowsie was not meant to be apprehended by beginners.  
  
"I see. Maril, you need to take us to Mt. Bristle and fast. We believe that Maril is in great danger." I explained to her calmly. I didn't want to upset her more. She nodded and turned around.  
  
"It's not too far from here. Follow me. Please hurry and save her." We began following her down the stairs, taking a left at the crossroads, and heading towards Mt. Bristle.  
  
Road to Mt. Bristle, Ally's Pov:  
  
Alex's new 'ability' might just have saved Azuril's life, that is if we can get there fast enough to apprehend Drowsie. It was still shocking that he turned out to be such a bad guy, but I guess it was kind of irresponsible of us to just let them go off with him alone, especially given that taking a child into a dungeon, except by the child's parents, was against the law unless the guild approved of it. It would have been great if we had known that before. We knew that now since every law that applied to the specific outlaw's crimes was printed on the outlaw notice. Apparently, Drowsie had done something like this before, and gotten away with it.  
  
"Do you think Drowsie would actually hurt Azuril? I mean, he is an outlaw, but could he actually be that bad?" I asked Austin in a whisper, careful not to let Maril hear the 'outlaw' part, knowing this would probably worry her more.  
  
"I honestly don't know Ally, this guy does have a history of being unpredictable, for the amount of time we've known about him. The mission was marked for diamond ranked teams, so he must be pretty tough. Either that or he's committed so many crimes that they've marked him as such, but I doubt it. We need to get to Azuril as soon as possible." He responded. Noticing my discomfort about the situation, he took his paw and placed it on my back, gently running it back and forth through my fur. I don't know why, but this sort of thing always seemed to calm me down. Maybe it was the fact that the static charge Austin's fur possessed was soothing.  
  
"Thanks, I kinda needed that. We've dealt with far worse than this guy, but the fact that this little girl could get hurt because we allowed her to go off with someone she didn't know really bothers me." I explained to him, relief slightly showing in my tone.  
  
"Ally, it'll be fine. Azuril will be safe with her sister in no time, no need to worry about it. We can handle Drowsie, no questions asked. After all, who are we?" He asked me. It was childish, but I knew what he meant.  
  
"Team Eviolite." I replied with a smile as we grasped each other's paws. And it was true, we had started the team together. It felt like forever ago that I met Austin, or rather found him, in Evolution Forest, even though it had only been about two or three months. I stared ahead at my sister, who was making an almost excessive effort to stay right next to Alex. And I mean RIGHT next to him...not leaving his side. I couldn't help but laugh at that. I knew she like him, but sometimes the way she would act when there was something or someone she liked in the area was just incredibly ridiculous....in a funny sort of way. Sometimes she was sassy and a bit of a flirt, sometimes shy, and sometimes, well...this. And that's just the "someone she likes" category. If she likes something....  
  
You could noticeably tell that Alex was extremely focused on this mission, which we all should be, it was a serious matter, but every once in a while he would turn his head slightly to his right to catch a quick glimpse of Eve. I couldn't tell if he was trying to figure her out (I'm sure she's already flirted with him on plenty occasions) or if he just liked the way she looked, but it was entertaining to watch nonetheless. Even more so when Eve caught him in the act and he flat out blushed when she asked him about it, tauntingly of course. I couldn't really hear much of what Eve was saying, but I did hear her say, "it's ok, you don't have to be afraid to look at me" before noticeably laughing. I smiled at that before turning my attention elsewhere.  
  
I looked to Austin, more specifically the scarf I had given him for Christmas a while back, still carefully wrapped around his neck. He just hated the cold, not that I could blame him, but I still couldn't help but smile when I thought of that. Thinking about the said gift reminded me about what he had given me as I stared down memorably at the heart-shaped pendant carefully strung on the necklace around my neck, watching in wonder as it continued to glow a radiant blend of red and pink. I was starting to wonder if this necklace was more than just the creation of psychic energy. Austin had said that Alakazam had helped him make the heart jewel with psychic energy, but could it possibly have been created using magic? I mean, it's really hard to believe that psychic energy could respond to emotions as accurately as this necklace does. The heart jewel only glows when the wearer is in love with the one who put it on them, and now that I knew about magic, I was starting to doubt it's method of creation.  
  
"Hey Austin, do you think that Alakazam could have been a wizard....or knew one?" I asked him, unable to keep my speculations to myself any longer. He turned to me as we were walking, head turned upwards in slight confusion.  
  
"Alakazam? A wizard? No....I can honestly say that thought never crossed my mind. I mean, if he is it would mean that he intentionally held his team back when they were chasing us during our fugitive times. He could have teleported right to us or to our destination and set up an ambush. He could have done that with psychic energy, but a known destination would have probably been required, and he didn't know exactly where we were." He responded, bringing up something I had never thought of. "Why?"  
  
"Well it's just that I was thinking that the necklace that you gave me couldn't possibly have been created by psychic energy because that wouldn't be able to determine if I was in love with you. Now I might be wrong, but I think the necklace is magical. I think we should ask my parents when we get back from the mission. It wouldn't exactly be a bad idea." I explained.  
  
"Well I guess that would make sense, and psychic energy with that ability alone does sound highly improbable.....Ok. Let's ask you're parents then. It can't hurt to try can it?" He agreed.  
  
"Really? You're agreeing with my theory....just like that? No objections?" I asked in astonishment. Austin just laughed.  
  
"Ally, you're my girlfriend. Why would I have any objections to something you believe is true? I love you, so I should go with you on this." He said with a loving smile. I smiled back at him, our eyes locked. Too bad we didn't notice the rock wall of the dungeon we had finally arrived at until we smacked directly into it.  
  
"Ugh, well that was a pleasant end to a romantic moment." I muttered pathetically. Somehow I had managed to land on top of Austin who stared up at me, laughing quietly at what had just happened.  
  
"Wow, we should really watch where we're going. I didn't expect our relationship to get dangerous." He joked as he smiled at me warmly. He kissed me on the nose, making me blush like I used to do early on in our relationship. He laughed quietly. "There's a reaction I haven't seen in a while. Now let's get up, we have a serious mission to attend to." He told me, snapping me back to reality. We could cuddle later, this was serious, Azuril was in trouble. We quickly got up an ran over to the rest of the group.

* * *

 **Mt. Bristle, Eve's POV:**   
  
The timing of my sister's romantic moments with her boyfriend never ceases to amaze me. Here we are with an actual emergency and they're over there acting like that. Though I guess it can't be helped, those two were practically made for each other and things haven't exactly been easy for them recently.  
  
"Drowsie took Azuril and me up this mountain before I got separated from them. They should already be at the top by now, but they haven't come back, so please hurry. You have to go make sure that Azuril is ok." Maril said as she turned to us, regarding the mountainous dungeon in front of us. We all nodded in response.  
  
"Don't worry it's gonna be ok, we'll bring back your sister." Maril didn't ask about Drowsie, but I'm pretty sure she knew something was off about him from what was going on now.  
  
"Ok guys, let's split up into the groups we agreed on and hurry on through this dungeon. We need to save Azuril and fast." Alex said to the group. Everyone happily agreed, well except for Connor for some reason. I still couldn't tell why he didn't get along with Alex, let alone agree with anything he says, even something as small as this. They were just groups. Groups of four. Me, Alex, Austin and Ally in one, and Connor, Drew, Flare and Luke in the other. I didn't get what was wrong. The only way I could think of figuring this out was to ask him, and I'm pretty sure he'd tell me. We were best friends and all.  
  
Regardless, we all entered the mountain in our respective groups, determined to save Azuril from Drowsie and bring him to justice.

* * *

 **Inside Dungeon - Mount Bristle:**  
  
Going into the dungeon, I took a minute to check out the scenery. The ground was solid rock of course, noting the dungeon was a mountain. The walls seemed to be made up of sharp, needle-like rocks, not dangerous if you ran into them, but it looked cool. With that, I could see where the dungeon got its name from. Unsurprisingly, the others were nowhere to be seen since they entered at a different time than we did. Doing so made them end up on an alternate version of the first floor. Dungeons were weird like that.  
  
"Ok so the first floor, number one out of who knows how many. Seriously, how many floors are there in this dungeon again?" Austin asked the group, but we just shrugged our shoulders in response. Sometimes the client or the guild has information on the length of the dungeon, but Maril is such a young client and we never stopped to read the mission description long enough before we had apparently lost the paper on our way here.  
  
"Guess we'll find out. Let's get this mission started." Alex answered as we started on the floor. The room that we were in was rather expansive with each wall considerably distant from the center, which we were currently positioned. There were six different corridors branching off of it with no signs of which led to the stairs. Annoyingly, it seemed as if this would take a while, and we needed to get to Azuril now. Regardless, we began moving towards one of the corridors to our left, technically North West of our position by what the map on our badge said, and luckily no dungeon residents showed up. We had a history of dungeon pokémon showing up right away when we first started exploring them, and it wasn't pleasant when you weren't ready for a surprise attack. Once we reached the hallway-like section of the floor, we aligned ourselves in such a way that we felt would be best on the off chance we got surrounded and attacked. Austin and Alex positioned themselves on the outside of the group while Ally and I stayed on the inside so they could cover our weaknesses, or rather protect us better. We both knew how they were, and it was kind of funny, especially with Alex. I really didn't know why he was so nice to me, I mean I just met him around a week or so ago, but I don't know, maybe he's just a nice person. Either that or he liked me, and that was what I was going for. Anyway, corridors in dungeons were places you did not want to get caught by resident pokémon in. They were narrow, only enough space for one person in front of the other, and you couldn't see anything that was around a corner, or even see the direction you had to turn until you got there. You were pretty much vulnerable to just about any attack or attacker. A rescuer or explorer's nightmare is to get caught by several attackers in one of these areas, so it's best to try to get through them quickly.  
  
With luck, we were able to get through the narrow passage and into the next room where we found two items laying on the ground to the right of the entrance. From the looks of what we had picked up, we had found something rare, or rare for us at least. Apparently, we had found the technical machine, or TM, for focus punch, and a luminous orb. The luminous orb was nothing special really, just something that would fill our map completely if used, but the focus punch TM was not only very valuable, but very powerful with the move it contained, and Austin could learn the move. He decided to save it for later when I asked about it though, I never knew why. He just said it was better to wait for special occasions for moves. I shrugged my shoulders as we looked for another path to continue. I instantly wished I hadn't been the one facing away from the path we had come from when a starly suddenly charged up from behind with a quick attack and knocked me several feet ahead, sending a shockwave of pain through my body. From the location I was hit, somewhere near my spine (don't ask me how that was possible) it really hurt, and I couldn't seem to get up without the help of Alex who ran up to me about thirty seconds later, seemingly very worried from my lack of counter after the blow. Usually I get up and counter attack right away. As I returned to a standing position though, my back didn't feel right, slightly hurting as I tried to stand evenly or walk straight. Alex let go of me and I tried to run over to the group to assist in finishing off the starly and its accompaniment (funny, I didn't notice that before.), but a sharp pain shot up my spine as I did so.  
  
"Ugh, Alex, something's wrong over here!" I shouted to him to get his attention. He turned to me and immediately I could see the worry on his face return as he ran back over to me.  
  
"Eve? What's wrong? What do you mean?!" He asked when he got to me.  
  
"I...I don't know, maybe the starly's quick attack hit a bad spot on my back or something, but I can't walk without it hurting. Running is worse, sharp pain." I explained to him. It hurt just standing there, almost enough to make me want to cry, but I didn't think doing that in front of my crush was all that impressive if I wanted him to like me.  
  
"Oh, ok. We can't have you standing here while there's a battle going on, and we're probably gonna have to get to the next floor before we try to figure out and hopefully fix what's wrong with you. Umm...here, lie down so I can carry you." He told me. That last part made me blush. I'd heard Ally tell me that Austin had done this with her before, but Alex doing it with me was something out of my dreams....literally, I think I dreamt of it once.  
  
I did as he told me to do, laying down carefully so that I didn't hurt myself. He picked me up bridal style, making me blush deeper, and moved out of the way as an electrified starly shot past us and out of site. We both laughed as we stared at each other, more specifically, into each other's eyes, which did not help the blushing situation at all.  
  
"You ok now?" He asked me, seemingly lost in thought. All I could do was nod. Ugh, looks like Austin and Ally weren't the only ones that could get distracted by love during a serious mission. Heh, love. I never could have imagined that I would find that one year ago when I thought my parents were dead and I was too scared to leave Evolution Forest. They say that when you're a teenager you don't really understand love, and that was true, but I somehow knew what this was. I was in love with Alex. Nothing else could explain these feelings, and I couldn't be happier.  
  
"Thanks." I muttered, a small smile upon my face as Alex walked back over to Austin and Ally with me in his arms. The two had already defeated the resident pokémon, so it was safe to approach.  
  
"Hey guys, what's going on with you two?" Ally asked us, confused as to why Alex was holding me, her sister, in his arms. The slyness in her voice was enough to make Alex blush, but he explained anyway.  
  
"Look, it's nothing like what you're probably thinking. Eve's back got injured when that starly hit her from behind with that quick attack. I think we should get to the next floor before we try to fix the problem." He explained.  
  
"Oh, ok....well then we better hurry and do that then." Ally said in response, worry in her voice, though I could tell she was still unconvinced that helping me was all he was doing.  
  
We continued through the corridor we were originally planning to go through, Alex carrying me the whole way, before we ended up in the room with the stairs. As soon as we reached them, we went up them and suddenly we were on the next floor.  
  
On this floor, Alex looked around the rather small room we were in to see that it was completely devoid of enemy pokémon before he deemed it safe and sat me down and proceeded to feel my back.  
  
"Hmm....well I um....think the starly might have just hit a pressure point and the muscles around your shoulder blades, or somewhere in that area, are really tight. Nothing too bad. A massage would probably fix that." He summed up. I was always amazed at how he was able to figure things out so quickly like that, especially things involving injuries. Wait, did he just say massage? There comes the blush again.  
  
"Ok, well who wants to give her a massage?" He offered. Austin and Ally both backed off with sly smiles on their faces as they laughed quietly to each other. I'll have to remember to thank them for that later.  
  
Alex just sighed and proceeded with what he said had to be done. He started rubbing my back with slight pressure in a gentle back and forth motion. He increased the pressure on certain strokes, but other than that it was quite constant. Surprisingly, this was quite pleasant as the pain seemed to float away. This might have been a cure for the problem with my back, but it did nothing to help with the huge blush that was still on my face. Alex suddenly changed his strategy by putting pressure and rubbing in small circles around my shoulder blades. After a few more minutes of this, he stopped and helped me up.  
  
"How does your back feel now?" He asked me, curious as to how good of a "masseur" he was. Truth was that it was perfectly fine. I nearly knocked him over while trying to hug him around the neck.  
  
"Thanks." I whispered to him. "By the way, can you do that more often? That felt great." I asked him. He just smiled.  
  
"Sure." He replied. Remembering what we were here to do, we quickly got back into "exploration mode" and started exploring floor two. At this rate, we were not progressing very fast. Hopefully the other group was having better luck.

* * *

 **Flare's POV:**  
  
We were not having much luck with progression in this dungeon. Conor was too distracted to even fight back against enemy pokémon half the time, probably thinking about how unfair it was that he had to be in a group without Eve, Luke didn't seem to know much about dungeons for lack of experience, and we had never really done this without Austin and Ally leading us before, so this was all kind of new and we weren't exactly good at keeping the 'inexperienced' and the 'unfocused' out of trouble.  
  
"Look out!" I shouted to Conor as I dove and pushed him out of the way as an enemy pokémon came barreling past him. I was really getting tired of getting my fur dirty trying to keep him from being hurt. You know, I could understand why he was so zoned out, but if I had to literally 'hit the dirt' one more time I was gonna lose it.  
  
"Connor please, would you get it together? I know what's bothering you, Eve right? But this mission is too important to walk around without focus, so snap out of it and let's go." I pleaded with him as I attempted to help him up. I really felt sorry for him. It was clear that Conor knew Eve liked Alex, but he didn't want to admit it to himself.  
  
"Ugh ok, ok I'll pay attention. Just stay off my case, alright?" He asked, an irritated look on his face. I stared at him sympathetically. When his attention returned to me, noticing the look I was giving him, he sighed. "Thanks." He simply stated, smiling slightly.  
  
"What?" I asked him, mildly confused.  
  
"The fact that you're able to read me like that, and you give me sympathy. It shows that you care about me. And I know we're friends, but it's different when you're looking out for me like that. I don't know, maybe being in a separate group isn't so bad after all. Lately, Eve's been.....pre-occupied and hasn't had much time to talk to me, and Austin and Ally have enough to deal with, what with all of this magic stuff going on. I guess it's just nice to be able to talk to someone for a change." He explained to me. Something about what he said set off an alarm in my head though. I really needed to talk to Eve about this. Not about who likes who, but about how being so attentive to Alex is affecting Conor so negatively. I was getting the feeling that Conor felt he was loosing his best friend, underneath his feelings for her of course.  
  
"Well then, your welcome." I said, returning the smile." At least talking to him kept him focused, so there were no more incidences with resident pokémon attacks, and Luke seemed to be getting the hang of dungeon exploring, so our pace seemed to be picking up a little. We still had a long way to go, though I'm pretty sure Austin's group was way ahead of ours anyway. We were only on the third floor.  
  
We took a left down a path to our right to find the stairs to the next floor which we promptly went up.  
  
On floor four, we decided to take a quick break to conserve our energy. We had a feeling that this was around the halfway point of the dungeon. "Oh hey Drew, Flare, while we're resting, why don't you two tell us how you guys met? It certainly can't take too long." Conor asked us. Drew seemed surprised by this, but I just smiled at his recent success at starting a conversation.  
  
"Ehh, I think we should save that for later. I don't think you quite get how long it would take to tell you that. It wasn't exactly...the most normal of meetings. Azuril really needs our help, and this is supposed to be a short break anyway. Speaking of which, we should really get going." I told the group as we quickly gathered our things and started exploring our surroundings.  
  
Since we had sort of bit a 'drought' in resident pokémon, I decided to see if my badge could tell us how many floors were in this dungeon. It was really bugging me not knowing, so I pushed the button that every guild badge had in the center and a holographic display suddenly shot up from it as usual, displaying a map, our team information and stats, anything we had in our treasure bags (I still didn't know how it did that), and our location on the floor we were currently on. The holographic pictures of Austin, Ally, Alex, and Eve were crossed out, the words 'out of range' displayed next to their names. Interestingly enough, I noticed that the badge had a visual communication feature that seemed to be functional between our two groups, noting the still lit up symbol displayed near the words, but I decided to leave that alone for now. The map seemed to fill itself in as we went along, and it showed our current floor, but that didn't help much. My eyes fixed themselves on the words 'dungeon information' and I quickly touched the said word, causing the badge to emit sound in the form of a voice.   
  
"Mt. Bristle, a spiny, mountainous dungeon located five miles from Treasure Town. Travel time to and from this dungeon is an estimated thirty minutes by foot. Resident pokémon include starly, geodude, nidorino, and nidorina. Floor arrangement is relatively small, number of rooms per floor ranges from four to six, and the number of dungeon floors is nine." It reported out loud through the speaker in the back. After getting the information I needed, I pushed the button again, causing the holographic display to disappear back into the badge. I had to admit, this thing was way cooler than the rescue badge we used to have, RAV-BI.  
  
"Ok guys so we're on floor four and there are nine floors. Azuril is probably on floor nine with that jerk Drowzie, so it looks like we have the rest of this floor, then we have to go up four more floors before we arrive on the ninth floor to face him. Shouldn't be too hard." I informed them.  
  
We turned another corner to see the stairs we were looking for so, as usual, we went up them to the next floor. The fifth floor.

* * *

 **Floor three, Alex's POV:**   
  
Ahh, floor three, so wonderful to have finally made it here. On the previous floor, there were some problems....  
  
*Flashback*  
  
"Uhh Austin? Why is your badge glowing in the middle?" I asked him, referring to the light that was being produced from the center button of his guild badge.  
  
"Umm, I don't know. Let's see." He answered as he pushed it. The speaker came to life and the voice of the badge could be heard through the speaker.  
  
"Beware! Current location is at high risk of Monster Houses!" It informed us, urgency being added to its generic tone to express a possible dangerous situation.  
  
"Well, we should probably-" I started to say before about thirty different pokémon dropped from the ceiling and surrounded us.  
  
"Oh come on!"

* * *

 ***End of Flashback***  
  
Needless to say, monster houses were really annoying, and quite tiring as well. We had gone through about eight of our oran berries getting rid of those pokémon, and we were still feeling a bit weak. "Guys come on, we've got to pick up the pace. This is the slowest we've ever progressed through a dungeon, and Azuril's safety is on the line." Austin commented, trying to hype us up.  
  
"I agree with him. So come on, let's step it up!" I shouted as I gave Austin a high five. We really were running behind. I haven't been a part of the team for that long, let alone this world, but I'm pretty sure they haven't taken this long to get through a dungeon before. This just wasn't our day I guess. The others were probably way ahead of us, and boy were we in for a round of taunting after this was over. They'd certainly never let us live it down if they beat us to the outlaw on their own for the first time.  
  
We had managed to get the team hyped up, but the dungeon was still confusing as ever. I'll admit I like puzzles and such, but I hate these illogical mazes, all these twists and turns and random stairs that shouldn't be there. Pokémon seem to jump out at you from any possible angle at any given time as if they actually were everywhere and the laws of physics just didn't apply, not that magic had anything to do with physics either. I was still trying to wrap my mind around that. What exactly was going on in this world? I had decided to talk to Eve's parents about magic ever since I heard about it to learn everything I can about it. I just can't stand it when I don't understand something, and certainly knowing a thing or two about magic couldn't hurt in my effort to protect Eve, especially since, unlike Austin, I lacked magic.  
  
Another mystery was the problem with the "flow of time getting messed up" that Eve was talking about. I should probably talk to her about that later. Anyway, at least there were no unneeded surprises on this floor so far. We didn't need to fall behind any more than we already had.  
  
Ally was starting to get fidgety. It was pretty noticeable that she was nervous about the other group. "So do you think Drew, Flare and the others are too far ahead of us? Certainly they couldn't be facing Drowsie already. Do you think we should use that video call thing that's on the badge?" She asked Austin, the worry in her voice reaching a peak. He looked like he was about to wave it off and try to comfort her until he looked over in her direction and saw just how anxious she was. Drowsie was probably just some weak outlaw compared to what they might have faced in the past, but I guess Ally was too worried that the others wouldn't be able to handle themselves as well as they would in the full group. And certainly having her brother in the other group didn't help ease her worries.  
  
"Ally, certainly they're fine." He offered, but it didn't seem to help in the slightest. When Austin realized that his effort to avoid using the badge was futile, he put his paw to his head in defeat. "Ok fine. We'll call your brother using the badge." He said with a slight laugh whilst ruffling the fur on top of Ally's head. She seemed to like the gesture, but not the hair due ruining aftermath. She wouldn't stop pawing at it until it was straightened again.  
  
So Austin took out his badge and pushed the button in the center like I had done on the first mission, letting it send a holographic display out in front of him (I still had no idea how the exploration federation made it do that). Never having used the badge before, it took him a while to find the words: "video call" before he brought his paw up to the display and touched it. Surprisingly, it responded to his touch and a list of our team's pictures and names appeared before him. One name in particular was marked unavailable, and it appeared to be Luke.  
  
Ally seemed almost panicked by this, not that Luke could possibly be in any sort of danger with the others protecting him, but she was almost to the point of hyperventilation nonetheless. Luckily, Austin was quick to communicate solutions.  
  
"Ally, it's ok. We'll just call Flare and have her hand Luke her badge. I'm sure his badge is just malfunctioning or something." He told her as he pressed his finger to the display marked "Flare". At least Ally calmed down a little after hearing that.  
  
For a few seconds we could noticeable hear the communication sounds the badge was making, like what you would get from a cell phone, before Flare's voice started emitting from the badge. Apparently, you didn't have to answer for us to hear you since she didn't quite know what was going on.  
  
"Wait, why is my badge vibrating and glowing? Don't tell me this thing is defective....oh wait, here we go...." She must've pushed the center button because not a second later, her image flickered to life right in front of us. "Austin? Wow, yeah. Sorry guys, forgot it could do that. So what do you want? We're almost done with the dungeon, floor five I believe. There's only nine ya'know."  
  
"Floor five? Wow, we're only on the third floor. We've really fallen behind. Anyway, we called because Ally wanted to talk to Luke to make sure he was ok, and his badge doesn't seem to be responding. Can you hand your badge to him?"  
  
Flare smiled a bit at that. "She just can't stop worrying about people can she? Alright hold on." There was a bunch of strange noise as she passed the badge over to Luke. "Flare, Ally wants to talk to you." Austin gave his badge to Ally as Luke's figure appeared in front of us.  
  
"Ally? Why did you want to talk to me? Is there something you forgot to tell me about dungeons, or is it something else?" Luke asked her, quite confused.  
  
"Huh? Oh no, no. It's not that. I was just worried about you and I wanted to see how you were doing since this was your first time in a dungeon." She responded, sounding quite relieved that he was ok. He laughed a little when he heard that.  
  
"Ally, I'm as old as you are, or close to it at least. I don't need you watching over me like that, and I'm pretty sure I can handle myself in a dungeon."  
  
"Says the guy who nearly cried when a starly used growl on him." Conor said from somewhere to his side. Luke turned and scowled at his general direction.  
  
"I told you he snuck up on me! Anyway, why didn't you just call my badge?" He asked Ally.  
  
"Umm, we tried but it said it was unavailable." She responded, still quite confused by this badge "mystery".  
  
"Well I can assure you that I have it. It's right here in the...." Luke started to say, but faded off, sounding scared.  
  
"What is it Luke? The badge?" Ally asked him, slight concern starting to appear in her voice.  
  
"The badge isn't in the treasure bag. I could have sworn it was in there when we left the guild. I mean, it wouldn't be such a big deal if the badge weren't the spell book, but we need that thing!" Luke exclaimed with a fearful expression.  
  
Austin moved in to talk to Luke. "Wait, if you don't have the badge, or book, then where is it?"

* * *

 **Wigglytuff's Guild, Thomas's POV:**   
  
While Mari and Flint were out talking to people in the guild, or whatever they were doing (personally I think they were going on a date), I remained in our crew room, staring down at the badge that I had seen one of my friends in Team Eviolite drop. The badge seemed peculiar, which was what drew my attention to it in the first place.  
  
"Ok, so what is with this thing. It looks like an ordinary badge. It feels like an ordinary badge. And I'm not gonna even thing about tasting it." I said quietly aloud, careful so that no one would hear me. The only particularly practical idea I could come up with was to press the button in the center and see what I could find out from the information on it and its functions, not that I liked to invade on the privacy of the people I considered as friends. As I pressed the button however, a flash appeared between it and my hand. "Aww man, not with the magic again. I've really got to learn to control that when I get excited."  
  
Surprisingly, just as I did that, the badge suddenly lit up, and with another flash it turned into a medium sized hard leather book. "What just....happened." I muttered as a examined the book that was in my paws. It looked pretty old from how worn the edges seemed to be, there didn't seem to be any words on the side or back, but what really struck me was what was worded on the front.  
  
"GRACE FAMILY WIZARD SPELL BOOK" was neatly spelled and organized on the book. "G-Grace family....Wait. Ally and Eve?.....Allyson and Evening Grace? Oh no! He couldn't have found them already!" I nearly shouted as I ran out of the room.  
  
If this book was here in town, Ally and Eve must have gotten it from their parents, who must also be here. That or they received it from someone who knows their parents. Either way, I had to find them. There was something they had to know.  
  
I exited the guild and descended the long set of stairs, taking a right to head into town. Regrettably, I had gotten around for years by being a thief. No one had ever caught me in the act until Mari, but nonetheless I'd been here long enough to separate all of the possible target houses from the "don't even bother" ones. I knew practically every house inside and out....well, except for one that I had always thought was vacant. Growing suspicious about that house, I made my way over to it with haste. I was positive that the particular house I was headed to was home to Ella and Shard Grace.  
  
As I walked up to the front porch, I glanced up nervously at the door before I proceeded to knock gently. I needed to tell them who I was first, but I had no idea how that was gonna go. I mean I had the book and-  
  
My thoughts were suddenly cut off when the door opened to reveal what looked to be sylveon wearing a hooded robe. Well...either this is Ella and she's trying to conceal her identity during the night, or I've found a really shy actress.  
  
"Hello. Who might you be?" She asked me, slightly apprehensive. I guess that would make sense since she's never met me and besides, I'm-  
  
"Well?" She asked again, cutting my thoughts off again. /Come on man you're losing it!/ I put on an apologetic look and quickly stifled a reply.  
  
"Oh sorry. I'm Thomas, but I'm not here to introduce myself...well, not yet anyway. Would you um....by chance be Ella Grace?" I asked her sheepishly. I knew that asking the wrong questions could probably get the door flung in my face, and this was urgent.  
  
"W-what? How....h-how do you know my last name? No one around here is supposed to know that. Just...j-just who are you?" She asked me again, fear starting to noticeably grip her voice. It was her, but this wasn't going well from this standpoint.  
  
"Ella calm down. I'm a friend of your daughters. I came because I need to talk to you about something. Something involving, well, magic." I explained to her, taking out the spell book I had kept carefully concealed in the treasure bag Mari and Flint left me with.  
  
"Magic?" She muttered, lifting the hood of the robe off of her head, before her eyes caught sight of the book. "Wait, where did you get that?"  
  
"Your son Luke dropped it as his team was leaving for a mission. Once I realized what it was, and who Ally and Eve were, I had to come here. There are some things you need to know." I explained.  
  
"What do you mean there are things I need to know? About what?" She asked me, seemingly annoyed. I put on a serious look and stared her straight in the eye.  
  
"About Shade."

* * *

 **Mt. Bristle 6th floor, Drew's POV:**  
  
Well after Luke ended the video call with Ally, we continued floor five without a problem, finding the stairs within five minutes. It was this floor that was giving us problems. We had been here for at least twenty minutes and every corner we turned either took us in a circle or was a dead end. It's like this floor didn't want us to find the stairs.  
  
"How long is it gonna take to find those stairs? We've gone down so many hallways I've lost count." Flare exclaimed out of frustration. I looked back down at the flat holographic map that my badge was projecting.  
  
"Well, there is an area we haven't checked according to the map. It's north from here umm....down that hall it looks like." I said pointing in the direction of the said 'hall'. "Come on guys."  
  
We began walking down the incredibly long corridor-ish hall before we ended up in a moderately large room with a sole seed in one of the corners. The downside to this room was, of course, that it was a trap. As soon as we all set foot in the room, the exits to the room were both cut off by massive spires of rock, trapping us in.  
  
Flare let out a sigh. "Great. Now how are we gonna get off of this floor. There's no way out." She exclaimed.  
  
"Well, there is that seed over there. Maybe we can use it to blow up one of the rock spires or something." Luke said as he went over and picked it up, carrying it back over to us soon after. "What kind of seed is this exactly?"  
  
"Only one way to find out." I said as I took it in my hand, using my badge to scan it.  
  
The badge's speakers came to life, spouting information on the orb. "Pure Seed. Use this seed and you will instantly be transported to the stairs of any dungeon." It said before it shut off.  
  
"Well that was convenient I guess, but why would there be a trap here with the means of escape inside?" I asked the group.  
  
"I don't really think it matters Drew. Can you just eat the seed so we can get out of here?" Conor exclaimed, getting annoyed.  
  
"Fine, fine. But I don't think we eat this kind of seed. We do this!" I said as I thrust it toward the ground. It made a flash and suddenly we found ourselves in another room right next to the stairs. The downside....the teleportation felt ten times worse than the first time we used the badge to teleport out of a dungeon, so it took a good five minutes to collect ourselves and go up the stairs.  
  
The next floor we came to happened to be just an empty room, and I mean completely empty. No enemies, no items, no traps, no halls, and more peculiarly, no stairs. Normally you could spot them with a quick glance around the room, but there was literally no sign of the stairs.  
  
"Ok, so where are the stairs. They have to be here, that's how dungeons work, right?" Luke asked us nervously. Ally had filled him in on dungeons before we had left, but this was pretty strange.  
  
"Let's just look around. Maybe they're hidden or something. With any luck, we'll find the secret bazaar." I joked. We split up, going in four different directions to search for signs of any hidden stairs that could suddenly pop up in this strange room. The walls looked strange, almost out of place compared with the rest of the dungeon, and to be honest they creeped me out a little.  
  
"Hey guys, over here!" Luke shouted from across the room near one of the other walls. The Conor, Flare and I all made the trip over to Luke, but by the time we got there we were all panting from exhaustion.  
  
"Ugh, maybe running was a bad idea. This room is expansive." Flare said as she sat down, trying to regain her energy.  
  
"Guys, I found this weird sort of writing on the wall. It doesn't look like English, footprint ruins, unknown print, or what my mom would say was sometimes used in wizard writing. It looks like a bunch of random symbols to me. Like some kind of weird, ancient language or something." He explained, quite perplexed.  
  
This drew my attention as I got up and examined it myself. Normally, even if this was English, I shouldn't have been able to read it anyway since I was blind at birth, but Flare had taught me what the letters looked like using my sense of touch before we met Austin and Ally.  
  
"Yeah, I can see why that would look wei..." I started to say, but couldn't finish due to puzzlement. The symbols seemed to have changed, as if they had shifted positions somehow. Nonetheless, they were now, somehow, recognizable as letters and a sentence had been formed on the wall. It didn't seem like the others could see it though.  
  
"The key to the passage onward is a blast to the central floor." I said out loud as I read the now clear words. Everyone else stared at me like I was crazy or something.  
  
"What was that Drew?" Flare asked me, her voice sounding confused. Or was it worried?  
  
I couldn't lie to her, so risking sounding completely insane was the only option. "That's what it says. Don't ask me how I can read it. I...I don't know how to explain it." I told her as I stared towards the center of the room. "But I don't see why throwing a blast seed to the center of the room would hurt, even if I was just daydreaming." Perhaps that was the wrong way to explain myself. She probably won't believe me with that vague response, but it was all I could muster. Conor and Luke just kept staring between me and the wall, trying to figure out where I had gotten that information.  
  
Flare looked at me for a few seconds with an unsure expression before a warm smile adorned her face. "Alright, I believe you. Let's try it." Even though she was my girlfriend, I was still surprised at her lack of doubt.  
  
Turning around and taking out a blast seed, I thrust it away from myself and towards the center of the room where it exploded on impact. (Fun fact, don't lay on your treasure bag when you have excess blast seeds in it unless you want to visit Chimecho to treat injuries.) After the dust from the explosion cleared, a massive hole  was revealed where there was once thought to be solid ground. We all exchanged surprised looks.  
  
"Well, looks like Alex isn't the only one with a strange ability....Let's see what's down there." We made our way over to the huge hole and carefully peered down into it to find that the stairs were indeed in its depths.  
  
"Well now we have another problem. How are we gonna get down there?" Conor commented, noting the pit's depth. Luke's eyes lit up with excitement at that statement as a bright smile adorned his face.  
  
"Just leave that to me." He said solemnly before closing his eyes, seemingly focusing intensely on something. He opened his eyes a few seconds later and raised his right fore-paw into the air. In one quick motion, he thrust his paw upward and suddenly an....ice staircase formed in front of us? It was a staircase that led straight down to the floor of the blasted-open chasm, but why ice? "So? How was that? That was the first full-blown spell that I've tried, and it's improv." He asked us curiously, turning around after regarding his work.  
  
"Wow. It's awesome Luke, but if you don't mind. Why did you choose to make it out of ice?" Ice was a pretty unusual material to make a staircase out of, even if it was magic that created it. Luke looked quite embarrassed to put it short.  
  
"Oh, well to be honest. It's kind of cold here, so my mind was kinda set on cold. Mom says that magic is quite literal to what you're thinking or concentrating on, so I guess the cold thought just got mixed in with my intention on creating a staircase. Like I said it's my first 'real' spell."  
  
Wow, Ella and Shard weren't kidding when they said Luke was powerful. I'm no magic expert, I'm not even a wizard, but for a first spell that was pretty impressive. "Well we better get going before your staircase melts. You know, you should probably hold on to that spell for when it gets cold enough to snow. I'm sure people would love to tour a beautiful ice palace that 'mysteriously appeared one day'." I suggested to Luke before we gave each other a high five (or three). We quickly descended the ice staircase and went up the stairs to the eighth floor.  
  
You know, it's times like these when you want to praise a dungeon for placing you in the same room as the stairs. This dungeon was really tiring without Austin, Ally and Eve helping us out, and that weird previous floor was unlike anything we've ever seen in one. Hopefully Austin's group was picking up the pace. Drowsie probably wasn't that much of a threat to us, but having them around sure wouldn't hurt. Hopefully Azuril was ok.  
  
"So is everyone ready for this? Even though this is our first outlaw mission, Drowsie is recommended for diamond rank teams, far out of our rank. We've dealt with worse, but we should still be wary of him since it looks like we won't have Austin, Ally, Alex or Eve with us. At least for a while." I addressed the rest of my group as we were making preparations for Drowsie's confrontation. Everyone nodded in confirmation.  
  
"Well let's go then." I said as we made our way up the stairs to the top of the mountain. Time to face Drowsie.

* * *

 **Top of Mt. Bristle, Flare's POV:**  
  
Once we reached the top of Mt. Bristle, I began to hear shouts from the path ahead so we quickened our pace towards the source. The peak had appeared to be a circular room, not unlike those in a dungeon. Inside we were met with Drowsie seemingly threatening Azuril, just as Alex described. "Ugh, seriously. Would you just be quiet?! No one can hear you. How many times do I have to tell you that?! Now if you don't do as I say, and I have to repeat myself one more time, we're gonna have a problem, and things are not gonna be good for you!" He yelled at her out of frustration.  
  
"Well you're wrong about one thing, with that loud voice, we could hear you from a mile away, but I don't suppose a creep like you would be smart enough to figure that one out. Keep quiet much? Mountains echo ya'know." I shouted over to Drowsie, as smirk upon on my face. He turned around in surprise.  
  
"What? Who....who are you? What are you doing here?" It was kind of funny how he had never seen us, yet we were part of the team who saw him walk off with Maril and Azuril.  
  
"Well if your memory is fresh on a group of pokemon consisting of a pikachu, two eevee, and a snivy, then you've already met the rest of our team. We're part of Team Eviolite, and you thought you'd get away with kidnaping this poor child. Heh, pretty sloppy considering you showed your face in the very town the guild was centered in, huh Mr. 'Master Villain'?" Needless to say I was kind of having fun with this.  
  
At this point he looked pretty angry. "Those four fools? They....they caught on did they?" He questioned in anger. "Hmph, I don't suppose I should care, you guys won't last long and neither will they once they show up. Your team would have to be full of rookies for you to just let me walk off with this kid. Normally I have to take the child and run for it."  
  
I sneered at his remark. "I really don't get people like you. You actually find joy in kidnapping small children don't you? Then you use them for your own benefit before you let them go. That's low, even for a criminal. We've seen your outlaw notice, it's what you're know for."  
  
"Heh, my advice, is that you run your little rookie selves out of here before a battle starts because once it does, I can't say that any of you are gonna come out alive."  
  
"Bring it." I responded. There was no backing down now.  
  
Drowsie suddenly fired a signal beam directed straight at me. If I hadn't been paying attention, I wouldn't have been able to counter with flame thrower. The others jumped out of the way, flanking either side of me. The signal beam attack collided with my flame thrower, sending dust flying everywhere and making visibility difficult. This was bad news for me since I could no longer see my enemy who I was pretty sure was targeting me as the leader.  
  
Out of nowhere, Drowsie suddenly appeared behind me, readying an attack. "Surprise!" He spouted before knocking me across the room and into the opposing wall with a blast of psychic energy from his paw. I cried out in pain as I hit the wall, and the fact that the impact knocked the wind out of me didn't help. I struggled to stand as I looked around for any sign of Drowsie. Seeing him just a few feet away, I took a blast seed from the treasure bag that Drew had previously given to me to carry and I hurled it towards him. I took the explosion and startled yelp as a chance to catch my breath and get Drew's attention.  
  
"Drew, fire spin!" I shouted over to him in hopes that he'd heard me. He nodded, signifying he understood and began preparing the attack. Fire spin wasn't usually a very powerful attack, but I had ways of making it more intense.  
  
Instead of launching his attack in Drowsie's direction, he directed it straight at me. Using psychic, I altered the attack's shape and direction, making it fly back at Drowsie in a tightly compact ball of white-hot fire. Luke had taken Drowsie's distracted state to his advantage as it seemed since the moment the deformed fire spin made contact with the criminal, the ground gave way beneath him and he was shot up into the air by a simultaneous dig attack. That's gotta hurt.  
  
Drowsie landed on the ground with a sickening thud, kicking up some dust along with his impact. Despite what he had been previously hit by, he only seemed to have some problems with standing up, and man did he look frustrated. He grunted and looked off in the direction of Azuril, who stood off to the side, cowering in a corner nearby.  
  
"Fine, if you guys won't go down by brute force, then I guess I'll just have to find another way to take you down!" He shouted forcefully for all of us to hear before he swiftly charged and shot a psycho-cut aimed directly at Azuril. At that point I didn't have time to think, I just darted in her direction. Right before the attack came within striking distance of Azuril, I dove straight in front of her and took the blow myself. (Not-so-fun fact: psycho cut is known to be deadly if contact is made with a particular area of the body. Guess where I got hit...) The impact was enough to knock me into the wall for the second time today, and this time as I landed all I could do was stare at the crimson mess that had coated the fur on my chest. I blanked out.

* * *

 **Conor's POV:**   
  
I had to take a step back as my mouth dropped open at what had just happened. Drowsie's psycho cut attack suddenly turned deadly when Flare took the blow of the attack for Azuril, the intended target. The attack had made contact with her chest and some of the upper half of her belly, and even with her almost red fur you could still see the blood that had immediately began to soak her fur. She needed to get off of this mountain and to the guild now. Seemingly, Drew had already run to her aid. "Drew, just use your badge to teleport the two of you out of here. Flare needs help now!" I shouted over to him in hopes that shock hadn't completely consumed him. He simply nodded, pale-faced as he tried to pull out his badge with Flare in his arms, but then there was Drowsie, standing right in front of them with another attack poised.  
  
"Oh no you don't. You're not going anywhere. It's the price she pays for intervening!" He shouted at them, attack still ready for use. I didn't know if he was always this brutal or if it was the anger that had pushed him this far, but this wasn't good. "Now it's you-" He started to say before an intense bolt of lightning came down hard on him, followed by a tightly packed electro-ball that knocked him straight into a wall across the room. Not a second later, Austin and Ally showed up followed by Alex and Eve.  
  
"Hey guys you oka-" He began to ask when he spotted Flare in her state and his face filled with concern. He flashed Drew questioning looks, who solemnly gestured in Drowsie's direction then held up his badge for confirmation. Austin nodded and turned his attention back to Drowsie who was just picking himself back up. Boy Austin didn't look happy. Drew teleported himself and the now unconscious Flare off of the mountain just before things got ugly between the ticked-off pikachu and the criminal.  
  
"Ally, stand back please." Ally backed away as Austin's cheeks began to crackle with electricity. Within seconds, his entire body was alit with it as he began to charge at Drowsie on all fours for a....volt tackle?! (Ok. Note to self: never make Austin mad again.)  
  
The attack collided with Drowsie and Austin jumped back a few feet from the blast and resulting cloud of dust. When the dust eventually cleared, Drowsie was laying against the wall looking like a complete bruised mess, unconscious of course. Mission complete.....but what about Flare?  
  
Austin still looked pretty mad, like he wanted to attack Drowsie again, but Ally quickly fixed that with a simple hold of his paw. "Austin, it's ok." She comforted him. Austin calmed down a little at least.  
  
"Ok." He smiled as he gave her a quick kiss. "Now, let's get this criminal to the authorities and Azuril back to Maril."  
  
Luke was thankfully able to console Azuril enough for us to teleport to the entrance of the dungeon along with Drowsie. Luckily, Azuril had not seen the aftermath of the attack Flare had taken for her.

* * *

 **Entrance to Mt. Bristle, Ally's POV:**   
  
Like usual, the effects of teleporting using the badge were unbearably disorienting, but this time I didn't let anyone land on me. Huh, I guess I was getting used to this somewhat. "Oof." I spoke too soon. Guess what pikachu landed on me when he tried, and failed, to get up. Ugh, I loved him, but the next time he did that, even if it was an accident, I was gonna shadow ball him off of me. Flying a few yards should fix his disoriented problem in no time anyway. "Ok Austin, we have got to talk about your diet because it has now become a danger to me." I joked. He quickly jumped up, realizing he was on top of me, and helped get me up off of the floor as well.  
  
"Wait, what do you mean diet? Practically all I eat is berries....I'm a vegetarian.......Oh, you were joking weren't you?" Sometimes he could be so clueless it was comical.  
  
"Of course I'm joking, no diet." I laughed at his silliness. "But you are strangely heavy." At least it only took two of us to get Alex off of the floor this time. Anyway, after all of that was said and done, Azuril seemed completely fine, making me think she'd been teleported plenty before. In fact, she had been over with her sister, crying into her shoulder the entire time. I mean, not that I could blame her. What Drowsie did to her was sure to scare any child like that.  
  
Luckily, Magnazone and his two backup officers had shown up to contain Drowsie right as we had appeared at the entrance. He might just have gotten away what with how we were just lying there. You'd think the guild would train you on how to deal with this transportation method for this reason.  
  
"I assume you are Team Eviolite?" Magnazone questioned as he hovered over to us, Drowsie held captive between an electric barrier created by the three magnet-like pokémon. I nodded in affirmation as I approached him.  
  
"Yes I believe we are." I replied shortly.  
  
"Well thank you for your cooperation in the apprehension of this outlaw. We've been after him for almost two years now. We heard about your early detection about Drowsie's intentions from Chatot. Very nice work." Magnazone and his assistants turned around and began to lead, or force, Drowsie away. "We'll be expecting no less from you in the future." He hollered back as they hovered out of sight.  
  
Maril and Azuril made their way over to us with huge smiles on their faces. "Alex, Eve....oh and the rest of you, thank you so much! That...that guy, we should have never trusted him, and you put yourselves in danger to save Azuril. We....we can't thank you enough. I don't know what else to say."  
  
"I smiled gently at her. "Hey, what kind of people would we be if we didn't help you two? There was no way we were gonna let Drowsie hurt either one of you. Now run on home, I'm sure your mother is really worried."  
  
A look of sudden realization hit both of their faces as I said that. "Oh yeah. Ok, we'll see you guys later I guess. Come on Azuril." Maril replied as she led her sister towards home.  
  
We all turned towards Austin in a flash, nearly making him fall over. "Uhh, hey. W-what's up with you guys?" He uttered nervously.  
  
"Flare. Come on we need you to teleport us to the guild. Quickly." Eve reminded him impatiently. His face lit up with realization.  
  
"Oh, right! Hopefully this time we don't have to experience disorientation." He held the button on the center of his badge for a few seconds before the scenery of the mountain disappeared and we were transported to the guild.

* * *

 **Wigglytuff's Guild:**   
  
Oddly, when we descended the ladder onto the first floor of the guild, no one was there, not even Loudred who was always near the strange hole in the corner. "They must all be downstairs." I concluded as we descended the second ladder. I always hated going up and down these things. They just weren't built for quadrupeds.  
  
Upon arrival on the bottom floor of the guild, I could tell there was a huge commotion over near the crew rooms, specifically ours. It must've been about Flare. We rushed over to our crew room.  
  
Once inside, we saw everyone crowded around Chimecho who was tending to Flare. Drew stood off to the side looking completely terrified for her. I knew it was probably a bad idea to talk to him right now, so I looked around for Sunflora and went over to talk to her. "Hey Sunflora, is everything going alright with Flare?"  
  
She turned to me with a nervous expression on her face. "I don't know. I just came in here a few minutes ago, but it doesn't look good."  
  
Sunflora's suspicions were confirmed with what Chimecho said next. "Her pulse, I can barely feel it...it's faint and getting worse!" Drew's face paled. I thought he was going to start panicking, naturally, but instead he ran over to where Luke was standing and requested something I never expected any of us to ever do.  
  
"Luke, do you know any sort of healing spell? Anything that could save Flare? !" Luke's eyes widened in shock of what he was implying.  
  
"What, y-you know we can't do magic in front of normal people, it's against wizard code. Mom said that-" Luke tried to explain, but Drew didn't want to hear it.  
  
"I don't care what your mom said, Flare's life depends on it. There's no other way. Are you really gonna let her die?!" Luke really couldn't argue with that.  
  
"Hey guys, guys move out of the way! I know what to do!" Luke shouted as he tried to push his way through everyone. They started parting as Luke made his way over to Flare. Just as soon as he did, he closed his eyes and started mumbling something under his breath, raising his right paw into the air.  
  
Everyone just stared at him like he was crazy. Seconds later his paw started glowing a bright yellow color, sparkling light particles falling from it. He proceeded to bring it down and place it on the center of Flare's chest, muttering something else before the yellow light spread throughout her body. As soon as this took place, Flare's wounds immediately began to close, healing completely and leaving nothing but a huge scar.  
  
Everyone else in the room looked shocked at what they had just seen, staring at Luke like he was some kind of miracle worker. We were going to be in soooooo much trouble when we got home. At least Flare was going to be ok though.  
  
Chimecho did a quick check of her vitals and backed off a moment later in surprise. "Her pulse is back to normal....perfect actually. Luke...what did you...do?" Luke stared at her sheepishly, a nervous expression upon his face.  
  
"Ehehe. Well, I umm....Let's just get straight to it. That was magic." He told her flat out, no cushioning of the blow. She thought he was joking at first, until she saw he wasn't laughing.  
  
"Oh you're....you're serious. Magic? How do you expect us to believe that?" She asked him, dumbfounded. Luke simply raised his 'eyebrow' and then his paw.  
  
Chimecho looked up and sighed. "Fine, I guess we have no choice. I suppose miracle worker is a lot less probable than umm..."  
  
"Wizard." He finished. "Austin, Ally and Eve are wizards as well. You can confirm it with Wigglytuff if you want, but I don't think you really need to." Everyone stared over at Wigglytuff to find him smiling like everything we were disclosing was perfectly fine.  
  
"Well, looks like we aren't keeping any secrets from our friends anymore. How great is that. Yoom Tah!" He cheered. Ugh, guess he 'wanted' to appear like that all the time in front of everyone. He did say he only acted serious when he absolutely needed to.  
  
"Wigglytuff? Did you know about this?" Chatot asked him, probably wondering why his best friend would hide something like that from him. I'm pretty sure he hated to be left in the dark about anything.  
  
"Huh? Oh, well of course I did. I can do what Luke did too, I just wanted to see if he'd make the right decision." It was at that point that everyone in the room did a 'face-vault'. "What? Why are all of you guys on the floor? No need to sleep when one of our members has made a major recovery."  
  
We all picked ourselves off of the floor as Wigglytuff made his way over to us. "Austin, Ally, Eve, Luke, I will make sure that the council understands why you have broken such a major wizard law. They'll make an exception in the case of saving the life in front of a crowd. This is, surprisingly, the first reported case." He turned around to face the other recruits.  
  
"Now." He began in a serious tone. "If any of you wish to spread this information, I will have no choice but to wipe your memory of it and come up with an excuse to fire you. Am I clear?" Needless to say, everyone in the room agreed to keep quiet and returned to their respective jobs. Wigglytuff turned back to us. "Oh and Ally, your parents wanted to see you. They said it was urgent." He walked off after saying that.  
  
"Oooookay. Well Drew, I think you should stay here with Flare, make sure she's ok when she wakes up, while we go see what Ella and Shard need to tell us. We'll fill you in when we get back. Ok?" Austin decided.  
  
"Yeah, I think I can go for that plan. I want to be the first person Flare sees when she wakes up. And umm Luke, can I ask you for one more favor?" Drew asked Luke, but it had appeared as if he was already expecting it.  
  
"Way ahead of you." Luke gestured to a section of the floor and suddenly a bouquet of gracedea flowers appeared there. Next he waved his paw, facing it towards the nearby wall. Out of the wall formed a....cloud shaped bed? "Now this isn't just a cloud shaped bed, it's closer to an actual cloud, just solid enough to lay on. This way she'll literally be 'floating on a cloud'. You've got a pretty nice imagination for romantic gestures. Good thing you know wizards." Drew looked confused.  
  
"What did you read my mind or something?" He questioned him.  
  
"Nope, I read your diary. By the way, under your bed is not a good hiding spot when you share a room with a wizard." Drew's face went red, though I could tell Luke was just teasing him.  
  
"It's not a diary, it's a journal. I used it to write everything I did or saw when Flare and I were traveling before meeting Austin and Ally. Now I just fill it with plans for my relationship with Flare.....granted some are a bit unrealistic..." He said gesturing to the cloud bed.  
  
"Ok if you say so." Luke joked. "See you later." We left the room,  headed up both ladders and out of the guild.

* * *

 **Grace Family House, Alex's POV:**   
  
When we reached the Grace house, I went up and knocked on the door to be met with Ella opening the door. She let us in and we walked into the all too familiar living room to see Sard and....Thomas? "Umm Thomas, what are you doing here?" I questioned him as we walked up to them. I didn't even think he knew about Ally and Eve's parents.  
  
"Huh? Oh, you dropped something." He replied as he tossed us a guild badge that transformed into a book in mid air, hitting Austin in the face before it landed in his arms.  
  
"Ugh, you didn't have to toss it like tha....wait you had the spell boo-I mean random book that I have definitely never seen before." Austin tried, and failed, to cover. I face-palmed at that. Epic fail Austin.  
  
"Yeah um that's ok. You don't have to be secretive with me, I already know everything there is to know about the Grace family. It just so happens that I learned all of that from someone you know Austin." He smirked. Austin stared at him, a quite puzzled expression on his face.  
  
"What do you mean?" He asked him. Thomas' sly smile deepened.  
  
"Do the names Sam and Emma ring a bell? I have a feeling they might. Ella and Shard told me about your little talk with Ninetales this morning." He said slyly.  
  
Austin just froze. Ninetales had told him that those were the names of his parents. "You....you know my parents?"  
  
"Know them? They practically raised me, though not here. They had to get me away from my father. I'm surprised I didn't recognize who you were before. You're technically my brother by adoption, and you're not the only one who's been a human before. I wasn't born a human, but yeah."  
  
"Oookay, and your father is?" Austin questioned him. I was surprised to see that he wasn't shocked to hear any of that last part, but then again, what could possibly surprise us now?  
  
"That's what we wanted to talk to you about." Ella spoke up, interrupting the conversation. We turned to face her and Shard. "This happens to go all the way back to when Shard and I met. We knew your parents in....high school of sorts. I guess that would be the human equivalent." It almost sounded as if there was more to this "high school" than she was saying by the way she sounded when she said it, but it could have been my imagination.  
  
"Anyway, Shade lost it and blamed us when Sarah went missing. Luckily, he didn't know that Sarah had an egg, his son, and left it behind for us to find. Thomas was born a few days later, and we couldn't let Shade find him in his dangerous state, so we knew we had to keep him hidden. We knew that your parents were once human, so we worked on a spell to send them back to the human world with Thomas so Shade would never be able to get to him." She explained.  
  
"Oh ok well that explains why he would have been raised by my parents, but why exactly did Sarah disappear?" Austin questioned.  
  
"You see, there's a problem there, we don't exactly know. She was there one day, and then gone the next. Shade thought we had something to do with it, he still thinks we do, and now he wants to get his revenge by causing harm to or even killing Ally and Eve." She responded.  
  
"But enough of that. We can talk more about who's after who and why his happened later. Right now it's all about magic training. We had originally planned on waiting a few more weeks, but with what happened this morning, and some more worrisome information we got from Thomas, we need to do it now."  
  
"What worrisome information are we talking about?" I asked them. I was growing increasingly curious as this conversation progressed.  
  
Ella and Shard exchanged a worried looks. "Well, Thomas told us that Austin's parents think Shade might have sent someone to search for and keep a close eye on Ally and Eve. We think that if this is true, that person could possibly try to hurt them as well, so protection on your part is a top priority."  
  
"Wait a minute, Thomas, when did my parents tell you this?" Austin's increasing curiosity about his parents was starting to get in the way of the conversation.  
  
Thomas let out a sigh. "Look Austin, I'll tell you everything I know about them later ok. I know you have amnesia, but you need to listen to Ella and Shard right now. And to answer your question, it was a year ago. Your parents are in this world, but I don't know where since I've kind of been all over the place looking for Ally and Eve for the past 'three' years."  
  
The attention was turned back to Ella and Shard. "Austin, you are probably wondering why you have not been able to perform anything magical, even by accident, hmm?" Shard asked Austin suddenly. I didn't know what they were getting at, but I guess I'd soon find out.  
  
"Umm, well yeah I guess, but what does that have to do with anything?" Austin asked back.  
  
"You would be better suited to protect Ally from Shade if you could perform magic. There's an item we need you to find in order for you to be able to do this. Since you aren't quadruped, the magic you possess doesn't flow directly from any part of your body to the environment around you. You can't control it basically, it's impossible. The only way you would be able to focus it would be for you to use a wand, and as you might have noticed there aren't exactly many wand shops in this world." She half joked. "So, we need you to go find our family's wand. It's been in the family since the last biped Grace, who was Ally, Eve and Luke's great grandfather."  
  
Austin put his paw to his chin in puzzlement. "Ok so where exactly would we find this wand?"  
  
"We hid the wand when Shade started his rage for revenge. It's located in something called a sanctum which is kind of like a mystery dungeon, but there are all kinds of puzzles and mind games that the place seems to play on you to keep you from getting through. There aren't many enemy pokémon, if any show up at all, and the places are often magic proof. You can't use magic in them. If you remember that "weird dungeon" we directed you to in that letter a while back, that was in fact a sanctum, granted we made it so simple that Ally could touch a door and get through to the target item. That's nothing compared to where we're asking you to go, so you'll probably be needing these. It's dangerous to go alone after all."  
  
(AN: Ok, don't worry about the Zelda reference.)  
  
Shard left and entered another room of the house. When he came back, he was carrying two....ok, why am I not surprised. He was carrying two swords.  
  
"Don't worry, these can't fatally harm anyone unless you mean for them to. They're magical like that, of course." He explained as he handed one sheathed blade to Austin and one to me. Funny, they were actually perfectly sized for us. "And Alex, you look like you would be quite capable with a bow, so you'll be needing this." He told me as he handed me the item, also strangely in perfect proportion to my size.  
  
 "These items will be necessary for you to get through the sanctum. You can't, of course, walk just anywhere with those without looking like you pose a threat though. To hide them, simply toss them into the air lightly and they should disappear into what I call 'the void'. When you need them, just make a gesture as if you were reaching out to pull something out of a bag. You don't have to have magic to do this." The explanation continued.  
  
"Oh...ok. Well that sounds...simple enough. So I'm guessing we should go now? I mean, the earlier we get this wand, the earlier Ally and Eve can start magic training right?" I was kind of anxious to protect Eve, needless to say.  
  
"Right, right. I suppose that's true. Get going then, off with you. Just be careful. Sanctums aren't nearly as forgiving as mystery dungeons when it comes to fainting. You won't be able to transport out until you make it through I'm afraid." Ella warned us before we walked out of the house.  
  
As soon as we were outside, we stopped. "Ok Luke and Connor, you should probably go back to the guild and tell Drew about all of this. I don't think too many of us should go to this sanctum place, it's too dangerous." Austin spoke his decision. They didn't seem like they liked it much, but they agreed anyway.  
  
"And I'll join you on your way to the guild as well. I think I should help explain a thing or two since I can do it more accurately." Someone said from behind us. We spun around in surprise to find that it was only Thomas.  
  
"Hey, hey. Relax, it's just me. Now hurry on to that Sanctum now. I still need to talk to you Austin." He continued before he led Conor and Luke back to the guild.  
  
I just stared at the guy as he disappeared beyond the many shops of the town. "Well, ok then....let's go to the sanctum or whatever. Can't get any weirder than this.....can it?" I said aloud as we began making our way to the mysterious place marked on the map that Eve's parents had just given us.

* * *

 **Covert Sanctum:**  
  
The entire time we were traveling, I was wondering how this sanctum place was never found by anyone considering it was just another part of the land right there in the open. That was, until I saw it for myself....or rather I didn't.  
  
"Ok, so here we are. This is the sanctum I'm guessing, though it's not much for looks." Austin said looking up from the map and towards.....nothing? What was he talking about?  
  
"Umm, Austin? There's nothing there. It's just an empty strip of land, that's it. No weird, puzzling place." I stated to him, confused about what he could possibly be seeing. I seriously hoped he hadn't gone insane, though when I looked back at the group, they were also giving 'me' that look, well, except for Eve. "What? What's the matter?"  
  
"You mean you don't see the massive rock structure in front of us? It's on the map, and it's right there." Ally asked me, pointing in the same direction that Austin looked. When I shook my head, everybody, except Eve, turned to each other in confusion.  
  
"Guys, I know it's there, but I really can't see it either. I...I think it can only be seen by wizards. That's probably why it's never been discovered before. I was born to a wizard family, but I don't have any magic, so I'm not a wizard. And Alex is....well not connected to magic at all."  
  
Austin and Ally looked at each other questioningly. "Ok....well I guess we're just gonna have to guide you two to the entrance. Now hold paws and grab onto the treasure bag and let's go.  
  
"What? Umm, w-why do I h-have to hold her paw? Why can't she hold onto Ally's treasure bag?" I was already blushing after hearing that sentence.  
  
He quickly turned around and pointed at me. "Don't question my leadership! Now let's go, get to it." This is what I get for telling him I liked Eve. For all I knew, Austin and Ally had probably made a plan that stretched as long as marriage plans for me and Eve, and that's what was scaring me.  
  
"Oookay, fine...." I said as I looked back at my hand to find that Eve had already grabbed it. "Oh, uhh....ok then." That's literally all I can  say when I feel embarrassed. At least I managed to crack a small, warm smile when I closed my hand around her paw. She smiled back the same way, staring at me with those beautiful, yet oddly colored, pink eyes. What exactly determined that color for her eyes anyway?  
Regardless, I turned around and grabbed Austin's treasure bag and they led us to what we couldn't see, more specifically the sanctum. I think once we got within a few feet of the entrance, we started to see the sanctum for what it really was. Wow, it really wasn't much to look at.  
  
"Alright, well let's see how weird this place really is." I said as I led the team in. I had let go of Austin's treasure bag, but not Eve's paw, not just yet.  
  
When we got inside, I could immediately see how different a sanctum was from a dungeon. The room we were in (by the way it was only one room) could be described as a bit intimidating by its size and some of the structures inside. There was a fairly large staircase in front of us that led up to a platform at the top. When I looked over to the sides of the big mound, I could see that there were two other identical staircases that made it seem almost pyramid-ish. The only problem was that the path to the staircase was cut off at the first step by a steel gate that stretched to the low sealing of the part of the room we were in and there was no way to get around it. Peculiarly, there seemed to be a small slit in the bars halfway up, but other than that, it seemed relatively impassable.  
  
"Ok, Ella wasn't kidding. First thing we do when we get in here is get stuck." Austin commented in a quite annoyed manner. I let go of Eve's paw to examen the gate more closely. Puzzles were my strong point, and this was just the first step apparently.  
  
"Wait a minute, there are holes where the bars of the gate are implanted into the ground, and they're wider than the bars themselves." I gave the gate a push, but it wouldn't budge. I looked up to find that the bars didn't quite touch the sealing either, so there didn't seem to be a support system there. "Why would it be built this way?" I examined the floor where the bars were placed again. "Unless there was something holding the the bars of this thing in place besides the ground, and the holes were meant to.....This grate must recede into the ground somehow. How else are we supposed to get through?" I proposed as I began searching for a way to make them do that.  
  
My eyes kept coming back to the slit in the middle of the gate. I kept wondering why that would be there, until my eyes caught sight of something on a wall across the room just above the dome. It could be seen directly through the slit, and I didn't really think that was a coincidence. It kind of looked like a target of some kind. "Ok.....hold on." I said out loud as I reached out, like Shard had said, and pulled out the bow and the quiver of arrows.  
  
"Umm, Alex? What are you doing?" Eve questioned me, probably wondering why I had brought out the item. I had to admit what I was thinking could have come off a little vague.  
  
"Just watch." I told her as I took one of the arrows and loaded it in my positioned bow. I then pulled it back and aimed through the slit in the gate at the target-like object on the wall. Carefully releasing my grip on the end of the arrow, it was sent flying through the air where it hit the target perfectly. Not a second later, the gate sank down into the floor below. I turned back around to my three teammates. "Wow, I didn't think I'd actually hit it on the first try, but there ya' go."  
  
The others looked amazed. "Yeah, we should probably just let you lead in these places." Austin stated, holding his head like he had a headache.  
  
"You sure Austin? Aren't you usually the leader? You did start the team." I asked him. It was pretty unusual to see him just give up that role.  
  
"Yeah umm, just go ahead and lead here. Honestly I was ready to give up at the gate." He confessed, embarrassed. "And I didn't start the team, that was Ally according to our rescue team registration form."  
  
"Alright then, let's see what's at the top of these stairs. It looks like there are stairs all around this structure so we might have to go up it multiple times." This particular staircase was steeper than that near the guild, but it wasn't as long, probably about a third shorter in length, made of old looking golden stone. Getting out of that thin hallway-like chamber made it easier to observe the room while we were making our way up the stairs. The room itself was huge with massive stone columns surrounding the pyramid-like structure we were walking up. The area seemed to be lit by torches that were positioned on archways around the room, and everything in it just 'screamed' ancient. I couldn't really spot any possible continue points at the moment so I just stared ahead as we reached the top of the structure.  
  
From there, my suspicion that there were staircases on all four sides of this structure were confirmed, but the other three seemed to lead to nowhere (meaning they led straight into walls). "Ok well we made it up here but I don't see..." I suddenly felt the floor shift below me.  
  
When I looked down, it appeared that I had stepped on a switch of some kind. Suddenly, a rumbling sound reverberated throughout the room as we realized the walls on the remaining three sides of the room lifted up to reveal three doors. Within a few more seconds, bars shot out from all sides of the structure we were on and met up at the center above our heads, creating a cage. Guess it couldn't be that simple. "Well that was unexpected."  
  
"Well that solves one problem, but how are we gonna get out of here? Eve started testing some of the bars. No luck there.  
  
"Hey Alex, come check this out." Ally called out to me from a point on the floor. I walked over to her with growing curiosity for what she could be talking about.  
  
"What'd you find? Is it somewhere on the floor because it looks like you're just standing around."  
  
She rolled her eyes and looked down between us. "See this slit-like hole in the floor? It kind of looks like a sword could fit into it." She hypothesized. "There's one just like it over there." She motioned towards the identical hole across from us. I smiled at her finding.  
  
"Smarter than your boyfriend." I laughed, looking over at the pikachu who was still trying to figure out how the bars had lifted. "That's a good thing for your relationship." Ally smiled at my joke.  
  
"Eh, he has his down moments....mainly with puzzles and such. They really annoy him." She responded in a fond tone of voice. I don't know how long they've been together, but they sure knew each other well.  
  
"Hey Austin." He turned to me. I gestured to my sword that I had recently pulled out and unsheathed. Making sure he was watching, I plunged it into the hole in the ground, motioning for him to follow suit on the other one. Once he did, the ground glowed for a second, then....nothing. "Ok, now what?" I said out loud as I leaned on my sword, only to find that it moved the ground in the center of the two swords. "Ok, now that's cool! Austin, you pull, I'll push." I instructed as we began to do so. After we turned the floor a certain amount, we hit a bump and part of the cage sank back into the floor. If we made the floor turn any further, the bars would probably go back up, so we withdrew our swords from the floor and put them away.  
  
We headed out the recently opened section of the 'cage' and down the stairs to find the door that was also revealed by stepping on the switch up on the platform. As it seemed, this sanctum was going to have three sections. A left, a right and a middle section, the left one being the section we were about to enter. I opened the door and we stepped inside the next room.  
  
Upon entering the room, I scanned everything that was in it. The room was fairly small, compared to the previous room, with a single torch in the center of it. There seemed to be a weird tile on the floor that reflected images, and there were flag like objects that draped down like curtains on the walls.  
  
"Alright, so what are we supposed to do here?" Austin asked aloud just as he finished examining the room for himself.  
  
"I'm not really sure right now. Everything seems randomly placed." I suddenly tripped, causing one of the arrows to fall out of my quiver and into the flame of the torch. "Ok really? Right now is not the time for me to be tripping over my own feet." I said, slightly frustrated as I picked myself off the floor. I looked to Eve who seemed a bit fascinated by the burning arrow. "Um, Eve? Are you ok?"  
  
"Yeah I'm fine, It's just if those can burn....Alex, do you think if you could shoot a burning arrow at one of those flag things, there might be something behind it after it burns?" I pondered what she had said for a moment when my eyes fell to the reflective tile on the floor. Why would that be there in a dim room with no direct light? Unless there was a window hidden somewhere....Maybe.....  
  
I loaded and arrow in my bow and launched it through the fire of the torch, straight at the flag that was directly in line with the reflective tile. The 'flag', or whatever, caught fire, burned and fell to the ground in a charred heap in seconds revealing just as I had suspected. A window. "Ok Eve, you were right. There was something behind those flag things. That one holds the key to this puzzle. At least it's still light outside."  
  
The light from the window reflected off of the tile on the floor and hit a mark on the opposite wall that I hadn't noticed before. The mark suddenly lit up, and the bars on the door that we needed to get through lifted up. "Nice! Let's get going then." Eve spouted as we entered the next room.  
  
The room however only included a treasure chest of sorts. I walked over and opened it to find that it contained an old looking key. "Well, it looks like this is all that's in this side of the sanctum, so let's go see where this key goes." I said to my teammates as we left that section and went back to the 'cage' platform.  
  
"Ok, so it looks like the door over to the right has a lock on it. Let's rotate the floor so that the bars move out of the way over there." We did the same as before, turning it slightly further until the cage's bars opened to the right. Then we proceeded down the steps and I took out the key. "This should unlock the door.....hopefully." I mumbled under my breath as I slid the key into the lock and turned it. There was a click, and the key dissolved in my hand.  
  
"I'm no expert on weird magical sanctum keys, but I'm pretty sure that worked. Now let's hurry and get out of here. This place is really giving me a head ache." Austin complained, rubbing his head. I rolled my eyes, opening the door as we stepped inside the room.   
  
Yet again, the room was quite small. This time, instead of one torch in the middle of the room, there were many around this one, but I doubted they had anything to do with the puzzle. There were, however, three targets like the one that opened the gate at the beginning of the sanctum. These targets were positioned high up, one on each of the three walls in front of us. There was also a switch like the one that caused the 'cage' to appear on the rotating platform. Either one of these opened the door that was blocked by bars, or it was some sort of sequence puzzle. Probably the later.  
  
"Well the first step in this is simple. The amount of switches and targets in this room presents a possible sequence puzzle....but the problem is....what order?" I summed up, letting my team mates know what I was thinking. Ok so let's see....there are four of them, and....  
  
"Ugh, this is really starting to annoy me. Why don't you just shoot them in the order we solved the puzzles or something?" Austin spouted randomly, frustration clear in his tone. That got my attention right away.  
  
"What do you mean?" I asked him.  
  
"Oh, well there's obviously the same amount of switches and targets as there were puzzles in the main room. I mean, we had to shoot the target that was in the center of the room to open the gate, you stepped on the switched that created the cage thing, and then we turned the floor to go left and right and through the doors. Each had a specific direction. Middle, center, left and right. That order." He explained. Needless to say I was surprised at his ability to pay attention.  
  
"Wow, ok. Let's try it then." I said as I took out my bow, loading an arrow and shooting the target on the middle wall. I then stepped on the switch in the center of the room, proceeding to shoot the targets on the left and right walls, in order of course. The bars blocking the door opened shortly after. I turned back to Austin. "Wow, for a guy who doesn't like puzzles, you sure figured that one out fast. You pay attention well."  
  
"What? Oh umm, I wouldn't really say I pay attention as much as I'd say I have a photographic memory. And working with numbers and similarity is easy for me. I didn't really think that it was a coincidence that there was the same number of these things as there were puzzles in the main room, so I took a guess." He responded, gesturing to the switch and the targets.  
  
"Photographic memory? Well it looks like we have something in common, or at least a similarity. I literally remember everything, that is by sight, hearing, smell, or any other sense. Eidetic memory is what they call it, but I suppose it's practically the same thing. Anyway, let's get going." I turned around and opened the door. We walked in to find that it was he same as last time, a simple treasure chest in a small room. This chest looked a bit bigger though. I walked over and opened the chested to find another key, this one being quite big. "Well, let's go see what that center room is all about. I didn't pick that room before because I saw it had a different looking lock than what I thought the last key could fit into."  
  
We left that section of the sanctum and went back up the stairs, rotating the floor one more time before walking down the center set of stairs to the center door, which was quite big I have to say. Fitting for a bigger key. I took the key and slid it into the lock, turning it to hear a click. Like last time, the key dissolved, leaving me empty handed. It actually took the combined forces of me and Austin to force the door open. We stepped inside to find yet another treasure chest, this one looking quite our of place, like it was brand new. It seemed to radiate a strange aura.  
  
"That must be the wand, let's grab it and get out of here." Austin shouted eagerly as we approached the chest. He opened it and grabbed what was inside. It was indeed the wand, brown in the middle, cream on the sides. The colors of an eevee. Though when Austin touched it, it turned bright pink, the color of Ella to be exact. Kind of strange really, but I guess it might have something to do with Austin's magic deriving from Ally (or something like that), and Ella being Ally's mother.  
  
"Well it looks like you've found the wand. The question is....do you have what it takes to prove to me that you deserve it?" Said someone from behind us. We flipped around quickly to see.....a victini?  
  
"Who are you?" I asked the victini. He just frowned in response.  
  
"Why isn't it obvious? I'm Victini, and I'm the guardian of the Grace Family Wand." He replied, like we were supposed to know he would be here the entire time. "Now it's time for you to prove you are worth wielding that wand little hero.....or should I say, Austin. I've heard of you....I was impressed by that meteor stunt. But let's see how you deal against me." 

* * *

 

"So the main point that is intended to be understood in life is not that bravery is reserved for only a select few, and that those who are afraid cannot obtain it, but the sheer fact that anyone can be brave if he or she makes an honest effort to help others. Some do this by coming together and helping those in need in unison, by whatever means it may be, some may set up charity organizations. When it comes down to it, help is always necessary. If you think about it, aren't we all living beings...?"


	6. The Arena Champion!

 

* * *

 

**_ Competition is that of utmost beauty when those who compete do so in a friendly manner. Winning, losing. Glory for all... _ **

* * *

 

**_ 9:00pm, Sanctum Boss Chamber, Austin's Pov: _ **

Wish somebody would have told us that attacks could be used in sanctum boss chambers, because victini's first attack, fire spin, caught all of us off guard. Of course, being a legendary pokemon and all, Victini's fire spin was twenty times more powerful than the usual fire type's, so you could say it wasn't pleasant. Alex was lucky to have found a fallen pillar, which he promptly grabbed Eve and dove behind before the fire from the attack ripped across the room. We weren't so lucky...

I stood in front of Ally, raising my arms to protect my face. I closed my eyes, waiting for the heat of the impact...but it never came. I opened them again to see Ally in front of me with her paw to the spiraling embers. The flames themselves seemed to diverge at the point where they almost touched her paw, as if they were somehow repelled. It took me a few seconds to realize that she was using magic. I didn't even know she knew how to do that.

Soon after, the flames from the fire spin died down and a surprised Victini was revealed. "Well well, I see your girlfriend's had no problem catching on to her abilities. Though I suppose I should expect no less of one from the Grace family line." Victini spoke. I wonder what he meant by that. Was Ally's family full of super powerful wizards or something? That thought reminded me of the bright pink wand that I still held in my hand. I can use magic too. Duh!

"Nice one Ally." I complimented her, even though she looked like she had no idea how she did that. That brought up another point in my mind. I had no idea how to use magic at all. Great...

"Now let's see if you can handle this!" Victini shouted as he shot a concentrated torrent of flames from his mouth directly at us. Naturally my instinct in a situation like this was to use quick attack to evade the flame thrower, so that's exactly what I did. As I kicked off with my quick attack, I grabbed Ally and headed in the direction of the pillar that Alex and Eve were still hiding behind. Jeez. Help much?

I quickly reached into our bag and pulled out the spell book, changing it from badge to book form by the click of a button. "Ally. Do you think you, Alex and Eve can hold Victini off while I find some spells that can help us?" I asked her quickly before Victini had a chance to attack. She nodded and dove behind the pillar to grab the other's attention. Not a second later, they came out from behind the pillar launching a barrage of attacks. I on the other hand hid behind the pillar, searching quickly for simple but helpful spells. Sadly, I didn't have much luck with hiding behind the pillar seeing as Victini shattered it minutes after I dove behind it.

I jumped to my feet, readying myself to search through the book while dodging attacks. "Are you ready to face me now, or are you just going to continue to hide?" Victini asked me in a mocking voice. It was clear that simple tactics weren't going to work on him, and his attitude was beginning to tick me off to be completely honest.

"Ngh!" I grunted in frustration at my recent interruption in concentration. Victini simply laughed before firing a concentrated beam of fire in my direction. Thinking quickly, I leapt up using my sword as leverage just as the attack reached me, doing a backwards somersault in mid-air and rebounding off of a nearby wall to keep from putting myself at the mercy of my ever so annoying enemy. Annoyingly he was also a quick thinker, quickly following up with a barrage of fiery chunks that he sent practically everywhere in my direction...the move Ember. I quickly put the spell book in my bag and shot off with a quick attack, dodging and rolling under the embers that shot past me.

Once I was at a close enough distance from Victini, or what I could tell from how fast I was going, I slid a bit on the dirt floor and leapt up with my already prepped iron tail, smashing it into his face and leaping over him to land behind my teammates and pull the spell book out again. It seamed as though that iron tail really hurt. The others just stared at me, completely bewildered at what I had just done. I gave them an expectant look, raising what was supposed to be my eyebrow. "Well. What are you guys waiting for? Attack him. I have reading to do." I told them as I opened the book again and began searching. They shot off towards Victini seconds later.

I glanced up at the battle scene occasionally while I was searching, mostly due to an attack that was blown or fired my way (in which case I'd have to jump or roll out of the way), or to check up on Ally. The first thing I had come across was how to create a magical protection barrier, which was surprisingly easy and I didn't really need the wand for it. It also detailed that I could take attacks from enemies and make them my own, sending them back in any direction I chose using a similar form of that skill.

At some point during my searching, Alex was sent flying in my direction. Luckily I managed to grab hold of his hand, spinning around once using his momentum to launch him back at Victini for a powered up leaf blade. Man was I limber in this battle...the question was...why? After a few more minutes of searching, I had found some confidence, and a couple of spells and skills that I believed could help me win this battle. I returned the book to badge form and put it away.

Victini looked over at me, a smirk upon his face despite some slight but apparent exhaustion. "Are you ready for some actual combat now trickster?" He taunted, but I was in no mood for taunting...at least from him.

"Hmph!" I voiced as I jerked my wand, raising my paws in a lifting motion. Thankfully I was able to concentrate for once, because what I was trying to do was successful. A perfect circle of green light erupted from the ground where I was standing, temporarily blinding Victini...and myself to be honest. When the green light dimmed to a glow, the circle remained, a pattern formed in the center. This was what the book had called the Merlin's Circle. (AN: Sorcerer's Apprentice reference anybody? Huh, huh? Lol.) It supposedly was supposed to help me focus my mind and abilities, though I wasn't quite sure about it to be completely honest. I couldn't read some of the things in the book.

"The Merlin's Circle huh?" Victini asked, slightly interested in my sudden picking up of magic. "Simple, yet I'm surprised you could pull it off being that you are a beginner and all." I really didn't like how this guy was talking, even though he was probably just testing my tolerance for taunting.

I smirked, quickly pointing my wand at the ground below Victini's floating position. Then in one swift upward motion, I jerked the wand up in a circular pattern. A small typhoon of water suddenly erupted from the ground and engulfed the little fire pokemon as I charged up and unleashed a powerful thunderbolt in the form of a beam straight through it, effectively hitting him and causing a descent amount of damage.

He hit the ground a couple of feet away before picking himself up and hovering above the floor again. He seamed to be breathing heavily now, as exhaustion was becoming very evident. He smiled with interest. "Oh ho. Very good. Nice for a rookie. But let's see if you can stand up to this." He shouted as he flicked his paw outwards. The ground suddenly began to shake below me. I looked down just in time to see that it was cracking, giving off a strange red glow. I did a backwards summersault off of that section of the floor just as it exploded upwards sending shards of rock everywhere.

Deciding that I'd rather not be impaled by red hot rock shards, I quickly tried the shield skill I had read about in the book, only to find out a second later that the shards of rock weren't blocked but were floating and seemed to be under my control. I blinked in surprise before smiling at my success at a new magical skill.

"Yeah!" I shouted with a smile. That smile was short-lived seeing that as soon as I gained control of the rock shards, Victini fired another flamethrower at me. "Woah!" I gasped out as I quickly dodged, taking my controlled objects with me. Upon recoiling off of another broken pillar next to the entrance, I moved my hands in such a way that the rock shards formed into the shape of a giant lightning bolt and flew at a high speed directly at Victini. This caught him completely off guard, as proven by his surprised yelp as he was sent flying into the wall on the opposite side of the room. Of course I didn't stop at my rebound and attack. I continued with volt tackle, advancing on Victini at a break-neck pace as electricity built up around me. Just as I was about to hit him, I spun around and topped off my attack with Iron Tail. There was a huge explosion and dust filled the room. Luckily the dust did not reach the part of the room where Ally was standing because I did not want to deal with an asthma attack right now. I quickly leapt back from the wall and landed a bit unsteadily, my left foot on the ground with my knee and my right paw supporting the other half of my weight. That Volt Tackle had really taken its toll on me, and I'm sure the magic use didn't help since I was new to it.

Alex, Eve and Ally just stared at me in amazement. I couldn't blame them. I don't think I had ever done anything like that in battle before. Definitely not the magic, but my performance in maneuvers and attacking strategies had definitely improved. As the smoke cleared, Victini slowly rose from the ground, seemingly clapping his paws together in a congratulatory manner. In fact, that's exactly what he was doing.

"Hahaha! Well done my friend. Well done!" He said as he popped an oran berry into his mouth, rejuvenating himself. "Not bad at all. Very impressive on the object control, especially since objects originating from a spell attack are really complicated to tame and use against an attacker. I'd say you're a natural at this sort of thing. Perfectly suited for that wand." He complemented in an impressed nature. "No wonder Ella chose you to carry on that family heirloom."

He returned to his normal composure. "Austin Grace. You have proven that you are worthy and responsible enough to maintain possession of the Grace Family wand, so take it with you and consider it yours. But be warned that if it is ever to be broken, your magic shall pay the price. You and the wand have been bonded by it." He declared. Wait a minute...What did he just call me?

"Umm...Victini? Did you just call me Austin GRACE?" I asked him with emphasis on "Grace". I was a bit embarrassed. He looked at me and laughed.

"Oh. I suppose you wouldn't know, but those in the Grace family have slightly different marital customs as it seems. Those that are marrying into the family take the last name regardless of gender. I can only assume that you and Allyson would want to marry, but I went ahead and said your name that way to see how you'd react." He explained quite to my embarrassment.

"Hmm...Rather fitting, don't ya think?" Ally asked me in a sly tone before walking towards the bright circle of light on the floor that was apparently our only way out of here.

Alex walked up beside me. "Austin. Ya might just want to start saving up your money." He laughed before patting me on the back and walking off with Eve following close at his side.

...What just happened?

* * *

 

**_ 10:00pm, Outside Covert Sanctum: _ **

I cleared those thoughts from my head as I exited from the sanctum. As it turned out, travel via strange, magical light from the ceiling was a lot less disorienting than that of our badges. Man, Ella and Shard have got to teach us how to travel by magic. We had to have been in that sanctum for a pretty long time considering it was dark as night when we exited. "Ugh, anybody got a watch?" I asked out loud, which proved to be a mistake when Ally and Eve both looked at me like I was crazy.

"What's a watch?" Ally asked me, confusion clear in her voice. I should have known that they wouldn't know about such technology. From how both Treasure Town and Pokémon Square had looked, I could only assume that Ally and Eve didn't live in a modernized area...Either that or such technology didn't exist here, but from the functions of the badges I sincerely doubted that.

"Oh, a watch is something that tells the time of day. They were pretty common in my world...I think. Not sure they exist here." I explained to the two confused eevee. Alex looked at me like he was trying to analyze me, which kind of creeped me out.

"Hmm...Seems to me like you're getting your memory back. Not very fast, but I didn't even remember what a watch was until you explained it." Alex summed up.

"Wait, so you think that Austin'll eventually remember everything? That's great!" Ally exclaimed. Eve bumped her side as if to say, "shut your mouth". She seemed to get the message as she quickly replied, "And I'm sure you'll eventually do the same. Don't worry Alex!"

He just sighed and turned toward me. "Anyway, I think I saw a time function on the badge's main page. Try turning it on." He instructed. I nodded, pushing the button in the center of the badge. The small device clicked to life, light shooting out from its lens as the holographic display pulled up in front of us. Immediately I spotted the time and was taken aback. It was 10:07pm.

"Wow, we were in there for around four hours. Ella and Shard are bound to be worried about us. We should head back now." I stated as I closed the display and followed the transport procedure, only for the voice of the badge to speak up.

"Location not recognized. Unable to initiate transportation services. Please note that locations not marked on your treasure map will be unrecognizable." It explained. Great...

"Well, it looks like we're gonna be too late to enter the guild once again." I stated to the group, slightly agitated.

"Maybe we could suggest to them that we stay at my parents house. Just in case this happens. They do know about magic now." Eve explained. She did have a point.

"Yeah, let's try that tomorrow. No sense in waking everyone up tonight...especially Loudred." Alex agreed. We all shuddered at the thought. "Alright, let's get going guys." It was at that point that sounds of a noctowl were heard, making Eve jump out of fear and cling to Alex, all while trembling like crazy. Was Eve afraid of the dark?

Alex put his arm around her, softly patting her back. "Eve it's ok. It was only a noctowl." He said to her comfortingly.

She seemed to calm down as she looked up at him. "C-can you um...c-carry me?" She asked him pitifully. I looked over at Ally and smiled.

"Now who could've given her that idea hmm?" I asked her slyly. She just winked at me.

"I just told her about the carrying thing. I didn't think she'd use her fear as a crutch." She said as she laughed at her sister's wit. It seemed that even when Eve was scared, she was clever.

Alex looked over towards me for help. I slightly nodded my head, eyeing Eve so he'd get what I was telling him. He looked pretty embarrassed, and nervous, but he turned to face her again. Man messing with those two was fun.

"Oh umm...I...I-I guess so." He replied as he bent down and scooped her up in his arms. She smiled up at him sweetly, the way Ally always does with me.

"Thanks." She thanked him, resting her head under his chin before we began our trek towards home. Ally just smiled at her sister.

* * *

 

**_ 10:30pm, Path Towards Treasure Town, Alex's POV: _ **

It had taken only twenty minutes for Eve to fall asleep in my arms. I couldn't really blame her though, I was pretty tired myself. I stared down at her as I walked, watching her chest move up and down slowly with each breath. She would snuggle up against my chest occasionally, making me blush in the process. I smiled a bit, thinking about how cute she was when she slept. She was so peaceful...and I wouldn't take too kindly to anyone who'd threaten that peace.

I thought back to those two thugs who stole her relic fragment on the beach. They'd called her a wimp...and a coward. I looked back down at her. She may be timid, but she's strong and has a big heart. I frowned, thinking about how those words had affected her. She's just bad at taking insults. I can handle them for her. I smiled again, looking back down at her sweet face as I gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"Wow, pretty progressive don't ya think?" Said Austin quietly, coming up beside me with a laugh. I blushed, rolling my eyes at him. "What? I meant it as a compliment." He chuckled. "You've really been treating her well, and she seems to really like you." I smiled at that. I'm pretty sure he would know...and Eve's not exactly clever when it comes to secret admirer letters. Austin sighed, looking down. "Eve needs someone like you. She was real lonely back when we were a rescue team. It was good that she had Connor there to keep here company, but we all knew it wasn't enough. Now she has you, so keep it up man."

I kind of felt insecure about getting into a relationship though. I mean, of course I liked Eve...maybe even loved, I don't know. But I didn't really know how to date or anything. It was those kinds of things that didn't really come natural to me. "Umm...hey Austin. About the whole Eve relationship thing. I'm...not really sure what to do if Eve and I do get together. I mean, I know we have these cute moments and stuff, but I don't really...know how to date."

Austin looked at me kind of confused. "What do you mean?" I sighed, blushing out of embarrassment.

"Well for one thing, I don't think I'd really know where to go. A first date should be special...and you can't just go to the same place every time. I just got to this world ya know? I don't exactly know my way around..." I explained to him. I could feel Eve shift in my arms, so I tried to keep my voice quiet.

Austin seemed to get what I was talking about, though I doubt it had ever happened to him. "First date huh? Has Eve ever mentioned how the beach is at sunset?" He asked me. Taking my silence as a no, he continued. "Well Ally said Eve likes to go to the beach at that time because krabby blow bubbles that look pretty in the dimming sunlight. That'd be a pretty good location to just sit and talk don't ya think?" He asked me. He had a point there.

"And I don't really think Eve would mind if you went to the same place every time after that. She seems to like just being around you. Spinda's café would be fine. I mean, going somewhere else every once in a while is fine, but there aren't a lot of places to go in this area unless you want to find a spot away from town. I think you'll be fine."

"But what exactly am I supposed to do on a date? Man I sound clueless right now." Austin had to hold back a laugh so as to avoid waking Eve.

"Alex, just do what you've been doing. Talk to each other...get to know each other better. If you think about it too much you'll psyche yourself out." He chuckled. "But first things first, you've got to tell her. Thinking ahead'll get you nowhere right now." He said with a wink and a pat on my shoulder before he walked off to join Ally. I looked back down at her. Man, sometimes telling you my feelings seems harder that getting my memories back.

* * *

 

**_ 30 minutes later, Grace Family House: _ **

It was 11:00pm by the time we got back to the house, but the lights were still on as it seems. Ella and Shard probably couldn't sleep with us gone to such a hazardous place. I walked up and knocked on the door, trying not to wake Eve. When Ella opened the door, I could tell she wanted to relieve all of her anxiety by hugging each of us, but I simply put my finger to my mouth and pointed down to the eevee sleeping peacefully in my arms. She nodded and moved out of the way so we could come in. Inside, I quickly went by our room and laid Eve in her bed gently before exiting quietly, casting a glance back at her sleeping form and smiling before walking off.

Walking into the living room, it seemed that Ally had decided to follow her sister's lead and catch some sleep, noting her absence. Meanwhile, Austin seemed to be having a conversation with Ella and Shard, and by the intensely focused expressions on the three pokemon's faces, one could tell it must've been pretty serious. "Hey guys, what's going on?" I asked casually, walking up to them with a yawn. It didn't occur to me at the time that the way I had sounded when I said that might have been inappropriate for the situation, maybe even rude considering I might have interrupted them, but I was exhausted to be completely honest and I wasn't entirely focused on what I was doing. A major problem I had discovered about myself recently was that I tended to ignore things when I was either fatigued or concentrated on something else. It was especially problematic when Eve came to mind... That thought proved to be a mistake because as soon as it came, so did a bright blush followed by a few questioning looks from Austin, Ella and Shard.

"Oh hey Alex. I would've thought you would be in bed sleeping next to Eve right now, but I suppose you'd rather miss out on that chance, you being you and all..." Austin commented rather mockingly. I rolled my eyes and he sighed. "Ahh, but seriously. I was just talking to Ella and Shard about the wand and our battle with Victini." He continued, taking on a more serious demeanor.

"You said you were able to control debris from one of Victini's attacks and throw it back at him with a spell, am I correct?" Ella asked him. Austin simply nodded.

"Yep. It was one of the reasons I won that battle. I believe that if I hadn't been able to do that, I would have had some steep difficulty standing up to that guy's fire attacks." He replied. Ella seemed quite impressed.

"Ahh, well I have to say that that's quite impressive. Most advanced wizards cannot pull that off. Combat magic isn't very, well, let's just say simple to learn..." She faded off oddly. "You appear to be a natural." She complimented.

"Wait, so you're saying that highly advanced wizards have trouble with that stuff? Shouldn't that come easy to them, I mean that title does make them seem a bit...professional I guess from the way you said it." I questioned. Shard was quick to answer.

"Ahh, well most wizards only learn magic from a scholarly point of view. They don't really delve into the whole combat subjects as much, so having a specific talent for magic doesn't makes it easy. Combat magic is very different to learn." He explained.

Ella stepped forward. "Now that we're done with explanations, how about you let us see that wand." She requested of Austin. Austin nodded and pulled the pink, sylveon colored wand out of his treasure bag and handed it to her.

"Sorry if it's dirty, there was this huge explosion when I volt-tackled Victini and it sent a cloud of dust everywhere." Austin apologized to her. Ella paused, a terrified expression seemed to have made its way onto her face.

"A dust cloud!? Please tell me that Ally wasn't anywhere near it!" Ella exclaimed, fear quite prevalent in her voice. Shard seemed a bit fearful as well. Austin seemed as confused as I was for a second before his eyes lit up with realization.

"Oh uh, no no. Ella, I can assure you that Ally was nowhere near the dust cloud." He replied, quite to Ella's relief. "And I'm getting the feeling that this has something to do with Ally's asthma?" He guessed. Wait, Ally has asthma?

Ella seemed surprised by his knowledge on the topic. "Yes...yes it does...But how do you know about that? Ally was very secretive about her asthma, and I'm assuming the trend has continued. She didn't want anyone to think she was different, even at such a young age." She explained.

Austin seemed a bit nervous to answer that question, twiddling his fingers around. "Umm, ehe, well ya see. She's kind of had an asthma attack before. It was during one of our missions...on Mt. Thunder." Ella seemed close to fainting.

"She didn't have an inhaler. How...h-how did you stop it?" She asked Austin, still looking quite anxious. I couldn't blame her. It must've been unimaginably hard for her to go almost nine years knowing that she couldn't do anything to protect her children...directly at least. The guilt and anxiety for anything that could've happened to them must be catching up to her slowly...even if leaving meant protecting them.

"I don't really know. I only really managed to calm her down enough for her to try taking in larger breaths. The warm air that results from my fur heating up the atmosphere around me due to its static could've soothed her airway, but I don't know." Austin replied.

Ella sighed. "Well, that's just another reason to be glad she met you. Now, if you will, please take this." Ella said as she handed Austin something small, blue, and seemingly made of plastic. "This is Ally's inhaler. We couldn't give it to her because it would risk giving away her location to Shade. The one we left with them was destroyed in the earthquake we used to...to get away." She paused on that last sentence. "A highly complexed mix of berries is in this inhaler. It's the only thing that can stop an asthma attack right away to our knowledge. Just hold the open end of the inhaler to Ally's mouth and press the button once." She instructed Austin. He nodded as he put the inhaler in a separate, smaller pocket of his treasure bag. I guess that would make it easier to reach.

"Now about this wand. It's of a quite interesting color right now. To my knowledge it's supposed to be the color of an eevee. This must be a reaction to your connection to Ally. The colors of a sylveon have never happened to appear on the wand before though, so I'd say that's something to put your mind to." She explained, quite to my interest. I've always been fond of mysteries, puzzles and such. "This wand's power is immense. It has been said that Xerneas himself created it..." She paused, looking a bit nervous. Now it wasn't the fact that she became nervous that was confusing to me, but rather the reason. What was it about what she had said that could invoke such a reaction? Was it the sheer fact of her family's possession of the wand if such a high creature created it? I suppose it's plausible, but it could just be my own speculation.

"Anyway, it should prove to be very helpful in protecting my daughter." She continued, glaring at Austin intensely. Austin looked pretty uncomfortable with that...look he was receiving.

"U-uh, of course. W-when have I not protected her?" He asked rhetorically in his own defense. I however knew Ella was just messing with him.

A smile grew on Ella's face. "I know." That smile fell slightly in the coming seconds after she said that. "Austin, did Ally ever...mention us when you guys were over in Pokémon Square?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. She talked about you guys all the time. Of course half the time it made her tear up, but that's understandable." After hearing that, Ella's smile fell altogether as she let out a sigh.

I leaned over to whisper into Austin's ear. "Uhh Austin, I think you should leave out the parts about Ally getting hurt or crying over her parents. I'm sensing that Ella's still feeling guilty about the whole thing." His eyes widened with realization and he nodded, seemingly feeling guilty himself.

"So umm, when do we start training?" Austin asked, quickly changing the subject. I suppose that was a good way to get her mind off of Ally's past troubles...

"Oh...well training starts with learning simple spells from the book for the first two weeks, and progresses to focus and performing spells without reciting them for a couple weeks following. That's just the basic prep for beginning wizards. After that it pretty much depends on the instructor's imagination." She explained. "Anyway you two, it's 11:30. You really needed to be in bed a couple of hours ago. You definitely don't want to oversleep this time since this is the second time you've missed the guild's curfew." She acted almost as if she was our mother as well.

"Alright guys, I'll see you tomorrow." Austin said with a yawn as he walked down a hall to his and Ally's room. I remained where I was for a second with my arms crossed. I turned towards Ella.

"Do men who marry into your family actually carry on the Grace name?" I asked her, quite to Shard's surprise. Ella didn't react.

"That's true, but why exactly would you need confirmation on that?" Ella questioned back.

I shrugged. "Just curious." I turned towards Austin and Ally's room, a slight smirk on my face. "Don't you just love how well those two get along?" I asked rhetorically before walking off to mine and Eve's room. I couldn't see it, but somehow I knew that Shard just had a panic attack inside.

11:30pm, Alex and Eve's Room, Eve's POV:

I opened my eyes to the sound of a door opening, finding myself in my bed in my parents house. Alex suddenly walked in looking smug about something, but I didn't bother asking. Once he noticed I was awake, he walked over to his bed, which I made him push next to mine. "So how was your nap?" He asked me in a joking voice. I rolled my eyes, giving him a playful punch on the arm.

"Well, if you must know, it was nice. Your arms at surprisingly soft." I blushed as soon as I said that. "...Thanks for umm...carrying me." I thanked him. "I hope it wasn't too awkward."

"Huh? Oh don't worry about that. You're my best friend. And besides, it was cold outside and your fur was warm." Yeah, we both need to learn to be careful with what we say. Both of our faces turned bright red at that statement.

"U-u-umm...W-was that supposed to be a complement?" I asked him. We both laughed.

"Heh, I suppose so. Otherwise I'm just terrible at making conversation." He replied. I shook my paw in such a way as to say "Meh, somewhat". "Hey!" He exclaimed with mock hurt in his voice.

He laid back down on his bed with a yawn. "Well regardless of how nice your nap was or how warm your fur is, you still didn't sleep long enough, so how about we get some more? Did he just make a joke out of a question? I couldn't really tell.

"Wha...? Heh, ok Alex. Night." I smiled as I laid down as well. Oh how strange my crush is...

* * *

 

**_ Eve's POV: _ **

Ya know, it's great to be woken up by the gentle rays of sunlight from the window instead of a raging dark wizard bent on revenge attacking

my sister. Yep, my life's totally normal!

I got up and stretched, proceeding to take my bow out of our treasure bag and put it on. I still hadn't figured out what Alex was up to at the market yesterday, but I wouldn't let him know that of course. I had to make him think I couldn't be tricked.

Looking back over my shoulder I saw Alex, still fast asleep in his bed. I tilted my head in confusion when I noticed that his hand was positioned under his pillow, as if he was hiding something under it. "What are you up to...?" I muttered to myself just as he stirred, opening his eyes.

"Hey sleepy head, what's up with the pillow?" I asked him in a teasing manner. His eyes suddenly widened, seemingly shocked from what I had said.

"W-what!?" He exclaimed as he shot up a little too quickly, promptly face planting on the floor. "Ugh...Eve. Please don't startle me like that." He pleaded as he picked himself up.

"Hehe. Why? Is there something you need to tell me?" I asked him, making sure to maintain that playfully teasing tone. His face lit up with a blush and I was pretty sure I saw a bead of sweat appear on his forehead.

"What? I um...I-I have no idea what you're talking about. Shouldn't we be going anyway? The guild is probably wondering where we are." I just raised an eyebrow. Alex was clearly bad at hiding things.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Alex seemed to give in, letting out a sigh. "Alright fine." He smiled, admitting defeat as he walked over to his bed, reaching under his pillow and pulling out a small pink box. "I uhh...I wanted to wait for a better time to give this to you, but I guess I'm just too bad at hiding things. 'Twas making our conversation quite awkward last night." Wait...did he intentionally embarrass himself last night just to draw attention away from his little market adventure? Sly...using my warm fur to gain an advantage...I hate it when I loose.

I accepted the box, taking a few seconds to look at it first. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that there was something written on the box. It read: "You thought I wasn't watching, but I know you all too well. ;)" I tilted my head in confusion and proceeded to open the box, only to find the rainbow colored bow that I had seen in one of the shops in town yesterday. My eyes widened in surprise. He had actually managed to surprise me...Heh, no one's ever been able to do that. Wow.

"Alex...How did you know I wanted this bow?" I asked him, surprise gripping my voice despite my efforts to suppress it. He smirked at that question, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Simple. I noticed that you kept glancing over at a certain shop yesterday when we were looking for supplies and, knowing you, I was pretty sure that you were eyeing that bow. You really seem to like the one you're wearing right now, and you were wearing a flower on your head when I first met you, so I figured you really liked accessories." He explained. Did he...really pay that much attention to me? I was stricken by how kind he was.

I stared at him for a couple of seconds before a rush of emotion flowed through me and I did what I always did when I got over excited...I tackle-hugged him. "Hahaha! Thank you Alex! It's wonderful! Your the best!" I shouted as I nuzzled his face...wait what? I pulled back quickly, face probably as red as a cheri berry. I couldn't tell without a mirror, but that's how Alex's was at least.

"Oh, Alex I-I'm sorry. I s-shouldn't have-" I started to say, but he cut me off with a finger to my mouth. He smiled nervously up at me.

"No, i-it's umm...it's ok. You were just excited, I get it." He laughed as he moved to get up. I got off of him, trying to calm myself down. "Now, let me help ya with that bow." He continued, having regained his composure. I handed him the bow which he promptly took and fastened to my favorite spot next to my ear. Once he was done, I immediately stepped back, struck a pose and winked at him.

"Hehe, how do I look?" I asked him, but apparently the wink was a little too much because he blushed immediately and looked like he was struggling for words. Oops, wasn't trying to embarrass him...at least, not that time.

"W-whaa? Oh...umm, you look...y-you look cute!" He immediately slapped his hand over his mouth after he said that. Did...did he just call me cute? Man, things just would not stop being awkward between us. What was going on with him? Maybe he...no, it...it hasn't been long enough yet.

"Oh umm...thank you. It's not what I expected, but..." I couldn't really think of a response to that, only managing a thank you and a couple laughs between an unfinished sentence. "Do you...do you really think I'm cute?" I asked him, a small smile making its way onto my face.

He fidgeted a little before answering. "Well...of course. I mean, why else would that bow look good on you?" It seemed like such a simple answer, unlike Alex's usual long winded explanations that left me wondering how he was so smart. Hmm... I smiled regardless, but something...I don't know.

Suddenly, the door to our room opened and my mom stepped in. She took one look at my bow and something told me she knew. "Good morning sweetie! That's a nice bow, it looks good on you." She greeted me. "Now you two should get going. Austin and Ally are waiting for you out front. You need to get to the guild early."

"Oh, that's right! Come on Eve!" Alex exclaimed as he ran out of the room. I made a move to follow but my mom stopped me, giving me a sly smile.

"Eve, honey, is there something you want to tell me?" She asked me. I tilted my head in confusion.

"Tell you? About what Mom? What are you talking about?" I questioned back.

She sighed, putting on a softer smile. "About Alex. What's going on between you two? I know he bought you that bow." She told me, pointing to said bow. Ugh...I knew she was just asking how I felt about him.

I blushed slightly. "Heh, Mom. Please..." I said as I looked up at her, but her gaze was too unbearable. What can I say, I had just been reunited with her after nine years. "Mmm...fine. Just don't say anything. I...might have just a tiny crush on Alex...Oh who am I kidding it's not a small crush. I really, really like him." I admitted, practically jumping at the thought.

My mom smile widened as she let out a small laugh. "I thought so. You two get along so well. You're not like the traditional set of friends who just met." What she had just said caught my attention.

"Wait, so do you think Alex might like me back?" I asked her, hope filling my voice. She just ruffled the fur atop my head.

"That's just something you'll have to ask him dear." She answered, giving me a look that said: "I've been there". "Not all relationships start like your sister's. It's how you meet them that counts." She continued, looking as if she were enjoying a pleasant memory. "Now hurry up and go outside, your crush is probably wondering where you are." She laughed. I just rolled my eyes, saying goodbye to her before walking out of the room.

"Hey Eve, where'd ya go? I thought you were right behind me." Alex asked me the moment I exited the house. I explained to him that my mom had stopped me to talk about something, but I didn't dare to tell him what it was about. "Oh ok, well regardless we should hurry to the guild so we can work out this whole living arrangement situation before we have to go on a mission." He responded. Luckily he didn't question me further on the matter. "You two ready?" He asked Austin and Ally who were still messing around in their treasure bag.

"Huh? Oh yeah, yeah. We're ready when you are. We've just been looking for a better place to store the spell book when we're not on a mission. We can't risk losing it again." Austin replied, closing the bag and slinging it over his shoulder. "Let's get going then." He said before he began leading us through town. Oddly enough, the center of town was nearly deserted. The shops seemed to be closed upon closer inspection as we moved through town. It could've been how early it was, but I was a bit doubtful about the idea.

We took a left at the crossroads and climbed the insanely large staircase to the guild. Man, I'm getting really tired of walking up these steps. Luckily the guild's gate was open when we made it to the top. The reaction we received last time when we stepped onto the grate after being absent the night before was not exactly pleasant. It's bad enough that we're gonna have to deal with Chatot again.

We entered the small, wigglytuff shaped tent and descended the ladder to the first floor of the guild, and of course as soon as we did we ran into Chatot. I could tell he was about to scold us about our poor attendance again but Alex interrupted him before he could do so.

"Chatot, before you say anything. We have a perfectly...well weird reason why we were absent last night and we need to speak to the guildmaster." He explained. Chatot looked a little frustrated about being interrupted.

"Well at least we can agree on something. You can speak to the guildmaster. Follow me to his chamber, and quickly! We all know how slack you are with attendance." He replied. Chatot could be really annoying when he was irritated...Or was he just naturally unbearable? Nonetheless, we followed the unhappy bird down the second ladder to the next floor down and over to Wigglytuff's chamber. Before entering, Chatot turned back to face us. "Now this better be a good excuse, because failure to comply with a guild's rules can be very harmful to a reputation. Especially for you, Austin and Ally." He informed us before he turned back around and led us in. Jeez, he acts like we actually mean to miss the closing of the guild.

As we entered the room, it became apparent that the guildmaster was asleep...at least I hoped he was asleep. Ugh, if he could sleep with his eyes open, which was creepy by all means, then I was sure he could pretend to be asleep. You never can tell with Wigglytuff.

Chatot walked up to Wigglytuff in an attempt to wake him up, and he did, but the way things turned out were painful for Chatot and hilarious for everyone else. The moment Chatot nudged him, our humble guildmaster opened his eyes and shouted loudly, unleashing a hyper voice attack in the process that sent his friend into a nearby wall.

"Yoom-Tah!" Wigglytuff's famous phrase was included in the hyper voice, so it was easy to conclude that he was not one to be woken up safely. Once Wigglytuff had woken up enough to notice Chatot's crumpled up form on the ground, and our fits of laughter, he picked himself off the ground and put on a confused expression. "Chatot? Why are you sleeping right now? We have friends here." He asked his clearly injured friend.

Chatot weakly raised his head from the floor and nodded. "Ugh. So I see guildmaster." He responded, slowly picking himself up and walking over to us.

Wigglytuff turned towards us. "Now what's on your mind friendly friends?" Wigglytuff asked in his usual friendly voice. I don't think I've ever seen him speak to someone unkindly.

"Oh, well we just need to talk to you about possibly living outside the guild while we train here. We know that members aren't usually allowed to do that until they graduate, but considering what's going on with Shade and everything, we think that it might be safer for Ally, Eve and Luke to stay at their parents' house...along with the rest of us of course. I mean, we were late for the guild's closing yet again because we had to get a wand from a sanctum so I could protect Ally more effectively. I can only see that happening repetitively from now on, and we don't want to continue to burden the guild with our absence." Austin explained to Wigglytuff, making him pause as if he were thinking deeply about it. Chatot seemed more or less clueless about what we were talking about.

"Wait, has it really gotten that serious already?" Wigglytuff questioned back. Austin nodded.

"Yesterday morning we were attacked by Shade in our room while we were sleeping. Ella said he used a level 15 dark curse. It looked like a huge, black ball of energy that was completely devoid of color." Austin replied, resulting in a reaction that I had never seen in Wigglytuff before. Apparently, Chatot hadn't seen it either judging from his surprised expression.

Wigglytuff gasped, eyes widening greatly with fear clearly evident in his expression. "T-the death curse!" He exclaimed in a terrified voice. "T-that's it, you guys are not safe here. You need to be with Ella and Shard. Shade will more than likely avoid making a move there in the future now that he knows that you'd expect it. I knew that he wanted revenge, but to use that cruel, forbidden curse on two children is just unforgivable."

"The death curse?" I asked Wigglytuff. "What exactly would happen to someone who fell victim to it?" I asked him.

Wigglytuff just looked at me and shuttered. "The death curse was a curse created by the most wicked wizard in history. It was designed to completely vaporize those it comes in contact with as well as steal their soles and tear them apart. I seriously doubt that Shade used the full potential of the curse, meaning that Austin and Ally's soles would be spared, but they would surely be dead if they had been hit by it." Wigglytuff explained grimly. I was starting to get scared to be quite honest. Shade didn't seem to know mercy at all.

Wigglytuff took in a large breath to calm down. "Ally, Eve. I'm sure that your parents will be able to protect you and your friends. Your team has permission to live outside of guild premises. But don't think this excuses you from your duties." He told us, hastily changing the subject. "Now you guys better get going. I hear that there's a tournament being held today at Marowak's Dojo and I think you guys should compete. Everyone else in town is as it seems." So that's where everyone was. No wonder the town was deserted.

"Wait, so no mission today?" I asked Wigglytuff. Chatot stepped in and answered that question.

"Correct. We've declared today a break day so members could participate in or watch the tournament. The guild is a strong supporter of all community activities. I encourage you to compete. Coming from that strangeness I just heard, you need something to take your mind off of things. Mmm...and as for your crew room. Seeing as you won't be staying here anymore, you should probably go get your other teammates and tell them the news. We'll need that space for future teams." Was it just me or did he seem a little hasty to get us out of the guild?

"Oh. Well thank you Wigglytuff, we'll go check it out." Austin thanked the big pink pokemon before we left the room and headed for our soon to be ex-crew room to get the others.

And as it turned out, what the guildmaster had said was true. All of the guild members were gone on break. Probably already at the tournament site. It's funny how I didn't notice that earlier. I must've been too focused on possibly getting to live with my parents. Anyway, we headed towards the crew rooms and down the long hall leading to our room's door where we promptly entered.

Luckily the others hadn't left yet. Apparently they had decided to wait for us, or so it would seem. I think they just wanted to sleep longer. "Hey guys, we're back! Now pack your stuff we're leaving." I said as we entered the room. Drew, Flare, Connor and Luke just stared at us and blinked.

"Umm Eve. Maybe we should tell then why we're leaving first." Alex whispered into my ear. I have to say I felt a little embarrassed after that.

"Oh yeah, that's probably a good idea now that ya mention it. Ehehe." I whispered back to him. "So guys, here's some news. We're moving out of the guild and into my parents house. Wigglytuff thinks we'll be safer there." I explained, relieving their confusion.

"Moving out? Wait, so does that mean no more Chatot?" Connor asked hopefully. I nodded at his obvious question.

"Yep, and the best part of all, no more Loudred wake up calls!" I replied.

"I heard that!" Came Loudred's voice from another room. Guess he was still here. I rolled my eyes.

"So Flare, how ya been holdin' up?" Austin asked our fully healed teammate. She just smiled. I was pretty surprised at Austin. He was turning out to be quite the leader. Flare wouldn't have gotten here in time to get help if he hadn't directed Drew to take her out of the dungeon and back to the guild while we handled Drowsie, and a true leader always made sure that his teammates were in good shape. He had matured some from the time I had met him at my house back in Evolution Forrest. Heh, I still remember threatening to kill him if he ever did anything to hurt Ally. Guess I'm a bit childish as well, but she's my sister. What can I say?

"Eh, I'm fine. Thanks for asking. It's gonna take a lot more than a psycho cut to take me down." She replied. A lot more? She nearly died. How much more does she think she can take?

"Well good. So do you feel up to competing in the tournament at Marowak's Dojo today with the rest of us? We're just about to head over there." He asked her. She simply nodded.

"I can manage. I think that spell took care of everything I could possibly worry about anyway. The only thing that might possibly affect me is stiffness from the huge scar that I now have." Flare replied, getting up and jumping off of her cloud bed just as Luke made it disappear. "Let's go!" She smiled.

* * *

 

**_ 8:00am, Marowak's Dojo, Alex's POV: _ **

After a five minute walk through town, we reached the very crowded building that was Marowak's Dojo. Literally everyone seemed to be here. "Wow, everyone in town really is here. This event must be really popular." I said out loud to the group.

"Well it's the grand opening of a training facility for explorers, so you'd think people would want to be here to see all of the action." Austin commented back. He had a point. This town was relatively small despite its hosting of a first class exploration guild. In small towns, people are generally more responsive to community activities, and certainly being entertained by battles of tough pokemon was an eye catcher.

We began making our way towards the entrance, weaving through a thick crowd of people out front as we went along before we entered the relatively medium sized building. Inside there were people seated everywhere on rows of seats lining a rectangular battle field. There were directional lights over head that shown directly onto the battle field and there was a microphone on a stand in the center of the said field.

"Why hello. Might you guys be here to compete in the tournament?" Asked someone from beside us. I turned to see a Marowak walk up to us, a smile upon his face. "My name's Marowak and I'm the owner of this dojo. If you wish to enter this tournament, you need to check in with me first." He explained.

"Huh? Oh yes, we're here to compete. Thank you for taking notice." I thanked him. I honestly had no idea where to go once we entered so I'm glad he showed up. "We're Team Eviolite from the guild."

Marowak seemed surprised by that statement. "You're Team Eviolite? I've had some people mention you. Not to mention that everybody seems to know who two of your members are. I believe they keep mentioning the names Austin and Ally..." Aaaaand Austin and Ally's fame continues... "Anyway, since you're an exploration team all you need to do is give me one of your badges and we can get you registered. It should have information on all of your members stored in it, so registration is made easy." He explained.

I proceeded to hand him my badge. He accepted it, taking it and holding it to a rectangular shaped object with a screen. After a few seconds and some noticeably awkward sounds from the device, Marowak removed my badge and handed it back to me.

"Ok, looks like you guys are registered." Marowak told us as he messed around with the device in his hands, probably checking the information for errors. "Alright guys, if you'll just follow me I'll show you where contestants are supposed to wait to compete. And don't worry about not being able to see the battle field from where we're going. We've got that covered." He told us before we followed him in a straight path along the side of the battle field until we reached a set of stairs. From that point, we continued on down the stairs and into a room full of...people we knew... Wow, pretty much everyone in here was either from the guild or someone we knew around town. Marowak suddenly turned to us and pointed to two circular like tubes in the middle of the room.

"Those tube-like structures are what we use to get contestants up into the arena since this room is directly beneath it. Inside the tubes there are rising platforms that lift the contestants up above ground for battle." He then pointed over to what looked to be two huge screens on the wall, and when I say huge, I mean huge. The screens went from floor to ceiling and they were spaced out, probably so the tubes wouldn't get in the way of people viewing them. "Those screens are connected to cameras above the arena, so you can watch each battle from down here with ease. If you want to go cheer for a friend of course, you can feel free to go up the stairs and watch, but make sure not to stray too far from them in case your battle is up next. In which case I'll find you." He explained. We all nodded to show that we understood. "Alright well good luck. The tournament'll begin in just a few minutes. Until then you can sit back and relax. I do suppose I should call out the first contestants though." Marowak said as he walked to the center of the room, between the two tubes.

"Ok listen up. It looks like the first two Pokemon who will be competing are Conor the oshawott and Craig the chimchar. Please step into one of the tubes and wait for them to lift you up to the battle arena. Once you are up there, the announcer will present you to the audience and a referee will signal the beginning of the battle. Once one of you is unable to continue, the match is over." Marowak said out loud to everyone in the room. I guess names are hard to memorize when you have this many people. Anyway, Connor seemed pretty surprised to be going first, and I couldn't blame him. This was such a sudden thing, to wake up and suddenly hear you have to compete in a competition. Nonetheless, he did as instructed, walking over to one of the tubes before entering. Eve promptly made a move towards the stairs, probably wanting to go cheer Connor on. I decided to go with her as we made our way up the stair together.

* * *

 

**_ 3rd person POV: _ **

All around the inside of Marowak's Dojo, people cheered as the anticipation for the coming tournament gradually grew with each passing second. Suddenly someone walked to the center of the arena, picked up a microphone, and began talking.

"Hello everyone, may I have your attention?" The pokemon announced to the crowd which suddenly grew quiet when he spoke. "My name is Marowak, and I an the proud owner of this dojo. As owner I welcome all of you to this soon to be amazing tournament that will mark a fantastic opening to this dojo. Now as you all know, a tournament wouldn't be a tournament without an announcer, so I myself will do my best. Now without further ado, let's get on to our first match!" He shouted enthusiastically just as artificial fog started pouring from opposite sides of the arena.

"First we have a fiery chimchar from out of town. Not much is known about him but he goes by the name of Craig Yuso and he says he was born for the arena! Let's here it for him guys!" Marowak shouts just as a chimchar with a smug expression emerges from the fog as it dissipates.

"And over here we have a resident oshawott. Some of you might recognize him as one of the members of Team Eviolite and a member of Wigglytuff's Guild. Please welcome to the arena, Connor Tide!" Connor emerged onto the arena in a similar fashion to Craig. Marowak walks over to the side of the arena. "Ok, standard battle rules. The winner will be determined when either of you is unable to battle." Marowak explained. "Aaaand, begin!"

Craig showed no sign of movement at the battle's start, however Connor shot off as soon as the call was made, a blade of energy forming from his scalchop as he ran at Craig at top speed. Just as Connor was ready to make contact with his razor shell, Craig suddenly jumped, kicking the scalchop out of Connor's hand and sending it flying over his head. He took a split second to smirk at Connor before he grabbed his arm, extending it outwards before elbowing him the stomach. Letting go of his arm, Craig took advantage of Connor's state of shock, proceeding with a Blaze kick to his face followed by a fire punch to his stomach. Craig finished off his close combat with a sickening backhand strike that sent Connor flying across the length of the arena.

Despite the amount of damage taken from the blows Craig dealt to him, Connor managed to find his footing just as Craig propelled himself forward using the fire and momentum from a double fire punch and readied another attack. Craig jumped up at the last second, delivering two powerful uppercut fashioned fire punches (one after the other) to Connor's chest before round-house kicking him into a wall. Craig rebounded from his attack and landed directly in the center of the arena.

Recovering quickly from the blow, Connor took the wall as an opportunity to propel himself forward as he formed an aqua jet and shot off toward Craig who seemed nonetheless unfazed by the sudden action. Down to the last second before collision, Craig parried Connor's aqua jet to the right, only for Connor to turn around and head for him again. Craig parried Connor's attack again, sending him flying to the left, yet Connor turned around yet again and headed Craig's way. Craig, having had enough of this, brought his fist straight up from beneath Connor as he approached him, setting Connor's attack upwards. Connor attempted his strategy one more time, coming in for an arial strike, but Craig suddenly jumped before contact could be made. Flipping in mid air, Craig brought his foot down hard on Connor, sending him crashing down to the ground at a sickening speed. The crowd gasped loudly at this development as dust kicked up from the dirt arena and Connor slid to a stop a few feet away from Craig.

Off to the side, Eve could be heard shouting words of encouragement to her friend who had just gotten to his feet in a wobbly manner. Suddenly realizing that frontal attacks weren't going to work, Connor found a new resolve and prepared a water pulse between his paws before shooting the watery ball out towards the fierce chimchar.

With a fiery gleam in his eye, Craig jumped high into the air with a flip, effectively avoiding the water pulse, before coming down hard with a devastating fire punch to the ground that created a massive shock wave. The shock wave was so massive that it launched Connor straight into the air, only for Craig to repeat a devastating strategy. Yet again, the brutal chimp jumped straight into the air and above Connor before he brought his foot down hard on his head, sending him crashing down onto the arena. Again Craig rebounded, landing directly in the middle of the battle field.

Connor began to struggle to find his footing. "Ugh...Is that the best you've got? That's pretty weak compared to some of the things I've been through." He said as he managed to stand up. Those words turned out to be disastrous as Craig flinched back, clinching both fists in the process.

"Raaaargh!" Craig shouted, raising both of his fists and throwing them down as an extensive amount of fire shot out from him explosively from all directions, reaching each corner of the arena. Then, as Connor stood there with a horrified expression on his face, Craig came at him at lightning speed and launched a massive focus punch that threw him over the wall of the arena, sending him crashing into the wall of the dojo at a break neck pace. Connor didn't get up after that blow.

Just as Craig cooled off from his anger, Marowak's voice rang out loudly from the speakers. "Unbelievable! Wow, looks like Connor Tide of Team Eviolite is unable to battle...and needs a medic. Yeesh. Craig Yuso is the winner and will advance to the first round of the quarter finals!" Everyone in the audience cheered at that statement as Craig began walking towards the stairs of the arena.

* * *

 

**_ 9:30am, Marowak's Dojo, Eve's POV: _ **

I looked on in shock as Connor's limp body slid to the ground of the dojo after leaving a massive crater in the wall. "Connor!" I shouted as I ran over to him and tried to arouse him. He let out a cough as his eyes opened and he sighed.

"Ugh. Aww man...Where's my scalchop?" He asked in quite a depressed manner. My eyes widened as I remembered the beginning of the battle where it had skidded to the ground at the other end of the arena.

"Hold on Connor, I'll go get it." I said as I made a move towards the arena, but Connor grabbed one of my paws, stopping me. I looked back at him to find a uncomfortable expression on his face. I tilted my head in confusion just as he looked at me some more and his expression softened.

"Fine, go get it. Ugh." He said before looking elsewhere. I looked at him in puzzlement a while longer before shrugging and heading towards the arena's stairs. However, just as I was about to reach the stairs, I ran into Connor's opponent, Craig.

He nodded to me as some form of a greeting before trying to walk by, but I blocked his path. "What's wrong with you?!" I asked him in quite an annoyed tone. He just looked at me, a confused expression displayed across his face.

"Woah, hey. What do you mean? I was just trying to walk past you." He replied with his hands in front of him. This irritated me a bit.

"I meant with how brutal you were when taking down my best friend. You didn't have to knock him into the wall so hard, if at all. We can't even get him to stand up now!" I yelled at him, making him back away a bit in surprise.

"Oh Connor? Ugh, sorry. I can't help it if someone makes me mad. And I'm sorry if you can't deal with my fighting style." He responded before trying to pass me. I blocked his path, glaring daggers at him.

"It was supposed to be a friendly match, not a brutal beat down and you're lucky that I don't beat you down right here and right now for what you did to my friend!" I yelled at him in frustration. He just rolled his eyes and pushed past me. That just irritated me even more. "So lucky!" I shouted after him before continuing down the stairs and across the arena to get the scalchop. Luckily no one questioned me as I picked up the peculiar shell and went on my way, returning to the stairs and walking back to Connor.

"Connor, I got your scalchop for you." I said as I handed it to him. Again, an uncomfortable expression settled onto his face, but he graciously accepted the shell nonetheless and placed it in its rightful place on his stomach.

"Thanks I guess..." He said, sounding incredibly depressed. I felt really bad for him as I tried to help him up along with Alex's help.

"Hey. Cheer up Connor. It's only one battle. You're still plenty strong." I said to him, trying to cheer him up. It didn't seem to be working.

"But he kicked away my scalchop..." He responded, sounding even more depressed. I suddenly felt even worse for him. What was with him and that scalchop? I'll have to ask him about it later.

"Connor, come on. If ya want, I'll kick his butt after the tournament if I don't get to battle him here." I told him, making him produce a small laugh.

"Ugh. Alright. Just stop pestering me." He said with a small smile, though I could still sense that something was wrong. Alex and I then began to help Connor down the stairs to the contestant area where we sat down and fed him a sitrus berry and a couple of oran berries to rejuvenate him. "Ugh. Thanks guys."

Austin and Ally walked over to us with shocked expressions. "Wow Connor. That sure was a brutal beat down out there. Are you sure you're alright?" Austin asked as he walked up alongside Ally. Connor just sighed.

"Yeah, I'm fine now...besides some damage to my dignity from Craig kicking away my scalchop." He replied, groaning in frustration. Just then, Marowak walked down the stairs and made his way to the center of the room.

"Ok guys. Well that was certainly an exciting battle. Hope you're feeling alright Connor." He said, looking over at Connor who nodded back at him. "Now let's see...well what a surprise. It looks like the next two contestants will be from the same team. Mari Amber and Thomas Gipson, would you please step onto the platforms? Your battle will be next." I looked over to my side to find Mari who seemed to stare at Thomas with an odd gleam in her eyes before walking into one of the tubes and stepping onto the platform. Thomas hesitated for a second but soon followed, stepping onto his respective platform as it began to rise.

"That girl is weird." I said to my group. Alex just shrugged and let out a small laugh.

"I guess she's just trying to psyche him out."

* * *

 

**_ Marowak's Dojo Arena, 3rd person POV: _ **

Marowak stood on the sidelines as fog began pouring from opposite sides of the arena yet again. "Heeeeelooooo everyone! Our next match approaches, and it looks like it's a team battle! Please welcome our new contestants to the battlefield! Here we have a recent recruit to Wigglytuff's Guild. Even though she's new she says that she should never be underestimated in battle. Please welcome, Mari Amber!" He shouted, pointing to his left as a mudkip emerged from the fog making it dissipate.

"Now over here, well, I honestly don't know. He just came into town one day. He doesn't really have a comment either..." Mari noticeably rolled her eyes. "But nonetheless, please welcome. Thomas Gipson!" The crowd cheered just as the call for battle was made.

Upon the start of the battle, it seemed as though Mari had disappeared instantly, leaving Thomas to his own confused endeavors. "Wait what?! Where'd she go?" He asked out loud as he searched for his opponent who was currently nowhere to be seen.

"I'm right behind you! Hehehe." Mari said, suddenly appearing behind him and causing him to jump. "Wow. You scream like a little girl." She taunted before she slammed him with a powerful water pulse at point-blank range, sending him flying across the arena. "Come on, you can do better than that 'illusion master'." She taunted again.

Thomas just stared at her blankly. "Ok?" He uttered in confusion as he readied a shadow ball to throw at her. Just as it was about to hit her, she dashed out of the way with speed like lightning, rebounding off of the wall and forming a torrent of water that quickly surrounded her as she gained momentum. "Aqua Jet?" Thomas questioned to particularly no one just as his eyes became alit curiosity, a smirk forming on his face. Backing into a fighting stance, a black aura started emanating from the ground as his eyes became silvery. Not a second later, he unleashed a strange light from his eyes that seemed to distort the atmosphere around it.

From Mari's perspective however, this 'strange light' proved to be quite different as her Aqua Jet turned to fire and everything around her melted into a lightless void. "W-what?!" Mari exclaimed in fear as she stopped her attack in mid air and crashed into the wall of the arena. "Ugh...what the heck was that?..." She questioned as she lie there in a crumpled heap. Thomas just laughed.

"Heh. I can't believe you just fell for one of my illusions. And after you called me the illusion master too. Certainly you knew about them?" He continued to laugh.

From over to the side, Austin could be heard shouting over to Mari.

"Come on Mari, kick his butt!" That little shout of...encouragement made Thomas rase an eyebrow, and soon Mari was up and doing the same, tilting her head along side him.

"Wow. What's going on between you two?" Mari whispered to Thomas.

"I'll give you the short version later, agreed?" Mari nodded. "Ok, battle on!" The both shouted before colliding both a shadow ball and a water pulse, setting them a couple feet apart. "Hey Mari, do ya know what the best thing about being a dark type is?"

"Umm...No. Why?" She asked him, a bit confused.

"Well it's just that I have the amazing ability to sneak up on people while they watch me and even talk to me." He said to her with a bit of a creepy edge.

"Huh?" Mari asked as another Thomas suddenly appeared behind her, only to get slammed down by a torrent of water. Mari casually looked back over her shoulder and smiled. "Oh hey Thomas, where'd you come from? I certainly hope that waterfall trap didn't rain on your parade or anything." She said sarcastically, leaning down to face him directly. "Whelp, bye!" She shouted as she zipped off yet again just as Thomas found his footing.

"Ugh, not again. Curse that crazy mudkip." He muttered, looking around cautiously.

"Crazy? Why that's certainly mean to say. What did I ever do to you?" Mari asked him, sarcasm gripping her voice yet again. Thomas spun around just in time to get a face full of water. "Oh yeah...that's probably it. Sorry. Hehehe." She said as she zipped off again. Thomas didn't seem very tired, but he was annoyed.

"Get back here you-" He began to say just as something clicked below him. "Huh?" He muttered just as a massive stream of water shot him straight up, slamming him against the sealing a couple of times before he came crashing back down. "Ugh...why is this water so dirty?...Wait a minute. Did you just rig the sewage?!" He asked in shock.

"Maybe..." Mari answered, fidgeting with her paws. "But that doesn't matter. This does!" She suddenly raised both of her paws into the air as a massive wave of water lifted up from behind her. Thomas just stared at her, wide-eyed.

"Mommy..." He muttered before the massive wave slammed into him with force equal to that of twenty rhydons. When the wave ran it's course, he was left on the ground, soaking wet and slightly bruised up. "Ugh, cheap shot..." He muttered, coughing up water. Then, from no place in particular, he pulled out a little white flag on a stick and began waving it around.

Marowak took notice and pulled out the microphone. "And it looks like we have an...understandable forfeit...Mari is the winner!" With that the crowd cheered and Mari moved on to the next round.

"Aww, you're no fun." Mari pouted as she walked over to Thomas and helped him up. Thomas looked at her, slightly scared.

"I'm no fun? It looked like you were having some pretty scary fun there to me." He said hysterically. Mari just laughed.

"Oh relax Thomas. That's just my battle style. Creepy huh?" She said with a laugh. Thomas calmed down a bit, though he was still a bit confused by his teammate.

"Wow. You're certainly strange. Though I guess that's not exactly a bad thing considering what you were able to do to me out here." He laughed. "Impressive, and you sure did make my brother laugh." He complemented her as they began making their way back to the contestant area. She looked confused about what he had just said.

"Your brother? You have a brother?" She asked him in surprise. He smiled at her expression.

"Well, brother by adoption. You know how Austin was yelling at you to kick my butt? Well I'm pretty sure that was because I annoyed him yesterday. His parents adopted me around the time he was born and, well, you can say we tend to annoy each other from time to time." Mari looked over to the pikachu in front of her who was also making his way to the contestant area.

"Wow. I didn't know he was your brother, but I kind of owe him one considering he's the only reason I wasn't wrongfully turned away from the guild by that Chatot guy." She responded with slight gratitude in her voice. Thomas nodded.

"I guess I understand." He said, taking a curious glance at his brother.

* * *

 

**_ 10:00am, Marowak's Dojo, Austin's POV: _ **

I descended the flight of stairs and arrived back in the contestant area just as a familiar voice spoke up from behind me. "Hey Austin. I loved your support out there." Mari said before I turned around. I looked at Thomas and he looked a little less than thrilled, or was the look coming from the plumbing water that still left a strange sent emanating from him.

"Oh uh, you're welcome. Good job." I replied, giving her a high five. "Oh and um Thomas, ya might want to consider taking a shower after the competition because 'water from the sewage system' is not the right sent for you." I joked as he rolled his eyes.

"Very funny. Let's just go sit down all right." He responded as we made our way over to the other contestants. I sat down next to Ally and started talking to her.

"So that was a pretty interesting fight. Mari's pretty unpredictable." I started causing her to turn to me. She seemed like she was thinking about something.

"Hmm...yeah. She fights a lot like Eve does when she gets serious, though Eve can be a little...mischievous." She replied.

I tilted my head in confusion. "Mischievous? How? I've never really found her to be that way the whole time I've known her." Ally gave me a sly smile in response.

"Then you obviously don't know her as well as I do. And I would advise that you never get into a serious fight with her." I looked at her with wide eyes.

"Oookay I'll take your word for it. Makes me feel sorry for who's battling her then." I said with a slight laugh as I grabbed her paw. "And whoever you're battling, I hope you give them a good workout."

She smirked at my comment. "Oh I'll make sure to do way better than that. They'll have to work hard to even hit me." With that I put my arm around her and pulled her close, making her collapse onto my chest in a fit of giggles and laughter. "Heh, stop it. The static in your fur tickles!" She managed between small laughs. She always liked the static in my fur, but I might have been putting a little extra into it just to produce that effect. Everyone around the room looked over at us for a second before returning to what they were originally doing. At least nobody was giving us odd looks, much less a second one. After a few more seconds, I released her and stared at her meaningfully.

"Make 'em sweat." I said to her with a laugh. She laughed along, still quite red faced from that recent 'cuddle attack'.

"Like I wouldn't. You need to focus on your battle though. Let's hope you get Chatot." My eyes lit up as I looked towards the musical bird pokemon. I laughed at the thought of getting to battle the guy.

"Heh, yeah that'd be great. Get back at him for being annoying." I agreed, smiling widely at the idea. Suddenly Marowak came walking back into the room looking quite happy with how his tournament was going so far.

"Alright competitions, that sure was an...interesting battle wasn't it?" Everyone in the room laughed at his statement. "Ok, well the tournament must go on. Congratulations Mari for making it to the next round. Oh and for all of you competitors who have been knocked out of the competition. Just so no one gets confused, will you kindly make your way up to the reserved seats around the battle arena? Don't worry, your team mates who are still in the competition will still be able to talk to you when they are not competing." Marowak said just as Connor and Thomas began making their way up the stairs. "Ok then. Now without further ado, the next battle will be between...Austin Valor and Loudred. Alright you two, you know the drill. Three minutes till your battle begins." Marowak smiled before walking back up the set of stairs.

So I was battling Loudred? Well it wasn't Chatot, but I suppose this'll be fun too... "Good luck." Ally said to me before I smiled and let go of her paw. Then I walked up to one of the rising platforms, Loudred in the other, just before it began to rise.

Hmm...yep, I remember elevators too, because this is just like one. Upon arrival at what I could only assume was the arena due to all of the fog that was starting to clear up, I heard Marowak start to announce something to the crowd.

"Heeeeeey everybody! Let's go on ahead and continue this tournament with our next two competitors!" The fog cleared up completely just as he began to introduce me. "Over here we have someone that all of you may know. He's not only part of Wigglytuff's Guild, but the esteemed leader of Team Eviolite and one of the proclaimed saviors of the world! Please welcome to the arena, Austin Valor!" He announced to the crowd as they went wild. I did a mental face-palm at how he introduced me. Being known to everyone as the 'savior of the world' was kind of annoying considering that it never went away. Oh well. I guess that's just part of being good at helping people.

Looking across the arena I noticed that the second patch of fog had cleared to reveal Loudred, who looked as pumped and ready to battle as ever.

"Aaaand over here we have yet another member of Wigglytuff's Guild. He helps maintain the guild's security by assisting in sentry and protecting its gates, whether opened or closed. Let's have it for Loudred!" The crowd cheered for a few seconds before Marowak began speaking again. "Well then, with that...battle begin!"

Loudred began to advance on me immediately, but I stood my ground, watching as he did so. It had taken him a while to get to the center of the field. He wasn't very fast as it seemed, but that made me worry about his possibly strong attacking power. I readied myself, and just as he approached me with a glowing fist readied (probably focus punch), I jumped slightly into the air and over his fist as it came hurtling past. Smiling, I landed on his head, jumped again, and did a backwards flip before landing on the ground behind him.

"Huh? Ugh, why you little! Where are you?!" He asked out loud as he searched around for me. Little did he know that I had jumped yet again and was ready to come down hard with an Iron Tail to his head. Seconds later, I smashed my now silvery tail into his head with a sickening thud and rebounded, landing a few feet away with a smirk on my face.

"Oh come on Loudred. Ya gotta be faster than that." I taunted him as he held onto his head in pain. This only seemed to agitate him, which was just what I wanted.

"Ugh. I'll show you fast you smug little mouse!" He responded in an annoyed voice before he picked up his foot and brought it down hard on the floor causing it to crack a little. He had used earthquake, and rocks were flying everywhere. I just hope Ally wasn't feeling this. She'd be terrified.

I put my paw out in front of me, creating a strong protect barrier that blocked all of the rocks that threatened to damage me. Soon the earthquake stopped and I dispelled my protect. "Nice try." I said slyly before I created a decently sized ball of electricity between my paws and launched it at Loudred, scoring a direct hit and sending him straight into a wall.

"Rrrgh! That's it, you're gonna feel this one in the morning!" He shouted before he began collecting energy in his mouth. Hyper Beam? Loudred can learn that? When Loudred had charged up enough, he fired a massive beam of energy at me. Luckily I reacted in time to jump straight over the Hyper Beam and start readying my own attack in mid air. My paw started glowing red as I started to fall towards Loudred, who was still focused on maintaining his attack. (Apparently he couldn't stop until the energy he had stored up was depleted. Weird.) Just as I was about to land on him, I brought my fist down hard on his face, stopping his attack and slamming him straight into the ground. He got up just in time to see me land a couple of feet away.

"How was that?" I asked him with a smirk before my fist began to crackle with electricity. I used quick attack to close in on him at seemingly lightning speed before I brought my fist upwards into his gut like an uppercut, making him fly into the air a few feet. Reacting quickly, I jumped up and rebounded off of the railing of the wall and followed up with another Iron Tail angled towards the ground. The attack sent him flying towards the ground at such an angle that, upon impact, he began to tumble a couple of feet before coming to a stop just as I landed. I quickly shot off across the length of the arena with Quick Attack and was about to start a Volt Tackle before I was suddenly slammed in the face by Loudred's fist, sending me a couple of feet back.

"Haha, how do ya like that?!" Loudred shouted as he got up wobbly. I just shook it off.

"I have a feeling you'll soon find out." I replied simply before I used Iron Tail to propel myself into the air. Just as I was as high as gravity would allow me to go, I unleashed a massive amount of electricity that arced straight towards Loudred before making contact with him and, well, electrifying him greatly. Just as the electricity from my Thunderbolt had run its course through his body, I landed and he dropped to the ground, defeated. Shortly after I heard Marowak's voice shout out to the audience.

"Amazing! And just like that, Loudred is down and out in a feat of electrifying intensity! The victor is Austin!" The crowd went wild as I waved to it once and exited the arena, making a turn to walk down the stairs to the contestant area. I would've stopped to help Loudred up, but the medics had arrived to tend to him and he wasn't conscious to begin with.

Walking into the room, I was greeted by 14 pounds of fluffy brown fur wrapping around me like a blanket. "Nice job Austin. That was awesome!" Ally said as she hugged me tightly.

"Heh, thanks Ally. Umm, can we go sit down now? I'm kind of tired after all of that." I asked her, making her look back up at me.

"Oh. Heh, sorry. Got a little carried away." She apologized with a sweet smile. "Sure, come on." She continued as we made our way over to the others. It seemed that no matter how much she matured she still kept her cute, 'jumpy' characteristic. I'm kind of glad about that.

We walked over to the others, sat down and started a conversation. "Oh hey Austin. Nice job kicking Loudred's butt! I actually quite enjoyed it after our first wakeup call from him." Eve congratulated me, a painful expression adorning her face at the mentioning of the memory. I was starting to get the feeling that Alex and Eve's first morning at the guild hadn't started off too well. Bet they're glad Ally and I showed up and kicked up the party.

"Thanks Eve. It was actually kind of fun, but man does that guy pack a punch. Running into his fist was not a fun moment..." I thanked her, rubbing my head from the previous impact with Loudred's fist. I looked over to the side to see someone in a red hooded robe standing alone in a corner of the room. "Hey guys, who's that?" I asked my group as they looked over to that same corner.

"Umm...what are you talking about Austin? There's no one there." Ally questioned me with a strange look, making me look back at the corner again to find that the person was gone. I rubbed my eyes and stared at the corner, blinking a couple of times.

"Huh? I could've sworn I saw someone over there in this red, hooded robe." I said out loud in confusion. Everyone else just shrugged. "Weird."

"So anyway, Eve. Who do you think you'll be going against?" Ally asked her sister, trying to continue the conversation. Eve just tilted her head in thought.

"Mmm...I don't really know, but I hope it's Chatot. He's just so annoying. It'd be cool to show him who's boss." She replied hopefully. "Oh, and I hope that I get to face Craig later on in the tournament if I move on so I can get him back for hurting Connor so badly. And apparently kicking away an oshawott's scalchop is a pretty hurtful thing to do because Connor seemed pretty upset about it." Man, she seemed pretty mad at him. I would kind of feel bad for him if he actually did end up battling her later.

Our conversation ended when Marowak came down the stairs again with another announcement. "Ok guys. First of all, congratulations Austin for moving on to the next round." He congratulated me with a big smile on his face. "Now, as for the next match, it seems that we have two fire types thrown into the mix. Let's see...Drew Blaze and Flint Hart. Please prepare for battle." He announced before he left for his position on the arena.

* * *

 

**_ Drew's POV: _ **

I have to be honest. I was a little surprised when my name was called out for the next battle, but nonetheless I followed the procedure that the others had before me and stepped onto the platform. I gave a last second wave to Flare as it soon began to rise up to the arena. I looked up to find that there was indeed artificial fog at my destination. I guess that was for dramatic effect or something. As soon as the moving sensation stopped, I heard Marowak's voice shout out from somewhere.

"Thank you for waiting ladies and gentlemen! Now it's time to get on to the fourth match of the preliminary round! Get ready for things to heat up because we have some really skilled fire types competing this time for a spot in the next round!" Marowak shouted to the audience enthusiastically. Man, that guy sure could pep up an audience.

"Now, over here on this side of the battlefield we have a fiery member from Team Eviolite. He used to be blind but with a miraculous turn of events, everything is clear to him and he's ready to battle! Please welcome, Drew Blaze!" He shouted out to the audience. Where does he get this information?

"And on this side of the battlefield we have the third member of Team Mirage. Born in this town, this fiery competitor is ready to heat up the battlefield! Here we have, Flint Hart!" Marowak announced just as the growlithe we met on the beach was revealed from beneath the clearing fog. "Aaaaaand battle begin!" Marowak shouted.

Right when Marowak started the battle, we both unleashed intense Flamethrowers at each other that collided at the center of the field and fought to gain the upper hand. When the heat at the center of the field became too intense, there was a huge explosion that sent ash and dust everywhere. I immediately closed my eyes, not wanting anything to damage them risk going blind again. Luckily my hearing was still quite advanced, so I didn't particularly need to see right now. I could hear Flint moving around so I could sense where he was.

Just as I assume he was about to make contact with me, I swiftly jumped up and over him and fired another Flamethrower in the opposite direction. Judging from the sound he made I could only guess that it had hit him.

Sniffing the air, I judged that the ash and smoke had cleared from it so I opened my eyes just in time to get knocked backwards a couple of feet by a strong Flame Wheel. "Ugh. Well that was unexpected." I muttered to myself as I pushed myself to my feet. I looked at Flint for a second before I shot off at him at top speed. When I was a few feet from him, I jumped slightly, fire forming around my right paw, before I prepared to deliver a fire punch to Flint's face. Little did I know that he had something planned for me when I got too close.

Right about the time when I was ready to swing at him, massive plumes of lava suddenly shot up from the ground sending me flying high into the air. When I came back down, I had just a split second to notice Flint charging at me before I was sent flying ten feet in another direction. When I came to a hard stop, I got to my feet with some difficulty to notice a slight burning sensation on my right arm. His attack had burned me. I looked over at him to find that he seemed slightly worn out from what he had just done. Could he have used Flare Blitz. It was certainly possible with its ability to cause burns and injury to the user.

I shook away my thoughts and charged at him again, only this time lamb body began to be covered in flames. Flint looked like he had the same idea with Flame Charge as he approached me with the same speed for a head on collision. We met at the center, there was a decently sized explosion, and we were both sent flying our separate ways to the opposite edges of the arena.

I struggled to get up from that, legs wobbling as I tried to maintain balance. Flint looked like he was having the same problem from what I could tell, but then again I didn't have good vision and he was pretty far away. I thought I could hold myself up for longer than that, but soon I felt the pain from the burn I had received from Flint's Flare Blitz and my arm gave out, letting me collapse to the floor. Yeah...there was no way I was getting up from this.

I soon heard Marowak's voice shout out to the audience. "Oooh! And with a close call it looks like Flint is the winner! What a close battle that was indeed!" Looking across the battlefield, I now noticed that Flint had collapsed on the ground as well. Hmm, I must've been first. I looked to my right to see that Flare had rushed to my side.

"Drew, hey! Are you alright?!" She asked me in slight shock. Apparently she had been watching from the side of the arena.

"Ugh. I will be with an oran berry or two." I joked. It was quite annoying just lying there and not being able to get up. Her eyes lit up and she let out a nervous laugh.

"Oh yeah. Ehehe. Of course. Hold on." She said as she reached back and picked something up. She then reached down and fed me an oran berry that she had apparently brought with her to heal me. Heh, she could be kind of forgetful sometimes.

I soon felt rejuvenated as the oran berry took effect and I stood up on two feet. I still felt the burn though. Looking across the battlefield again I saw that Mari was helping Flint up. The medics were apparently still tending to Loudred. "Hey umm Flare? Do you have another oran berry?" I asked her. She nodded in response, holding up the said berry. "Well then follow me." I told her as I began making my way over to Mari and Flint.

As soon as we got to them, Mari looked up at me, a confused expression on her face. "Need some help?" I asked her as Flare fed Flint the oran berry. Her confused expression soon turned to one of gratitude as Flint started to stand independently.

"Hey, thanks guys!" Mari thanked us with a huge smile on her face. She looked over towards Flint who seemed a bit distracted at the moment and frowned, prodding him in the side. "Flint! Say thank you!" She commanded as the newly healed growlithe looked at her in surprise.

"Huh?! Oh! Ehehe. Thanks guys!" He thanked us, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "So umm, shouldn't we be getting back to the contestant area?" He asked us. Flare smirked at me.

"Well yeah. All of us except for Drew of course." She said with a laugh.

"Hey! Don't forget you haven't battled either." I laughed back at her. She just rolled her eyes and smiled.

"Ok 'know it all'. Let's just get off of the arena before they get mad at us." With that we hurried off of the arena. Flare decided to stay up in the reserved seats with me while Mari and Flint scurried on down the stairs below the arena.

* * *

 

**_ 11:00am, Marowak's Dojo, Alex's POV: _ **

Well all I could say about Drew's battle was that Flint was not someone to be underestimated. In fact, from how the battle ended I'd say that the two of them were quite evenly matched. Turning my head to the right, I noticed that Mari and Flint had entered the room with no sign of Drew and Flare. Flare must've stayed up in the reserved seats with Drew to talk to him since he had been defeated.

"Hey Flint! Congratulations! Beating Drew isn't exactly easy to do." Eve congratulated him as they walked over. Flint gave a small smile in return.

"Heh thanks. I could tell. Even with fire type attacks he really did a number on me." And it was true. Even after being fed an oran berry, which I'm sure he had been, he was still noticeably worn out. I noticed that he seemed to be keeping all of his weight on one side of his body. Hmm...

"Hey Flint. Ya might want to eat another oran berry. From the way you're standing it looks like you injured one of your legs." I suggested as I grabbed an oran berry from our treasure bag with one of my vines and extended it out to him. Man it was cool being a snivy.

He accepted it with a look of gratitude on his face. "Thanks Alex. How did you notice that? He asked me in confusion after he had eaten the berry.

I smiled. "You were shifting all of your weight to one side of your body so as to keep it off of one of your legs. I could only assume." I replied. Eve looked at me like I was one of the smartest pokemon in the world. She really seemed to enjoy watching me observe things and explain them.

"Well we're gonna go talk to Thomas now. He's probably pretty lonely up there." Mari spoke up as she and Flint began making their way back towards the stairs and up to the reserved area.

I turned back to Eve who still seemed a little awed by what I had said just a second ago. "Heh, Eve. Come on. That observation wasn't a big deal. It was pretty simple." I laughed. The way she was acting was pretty cute.

"Well it was still cool..." She muttered. I put my arm around her shoulder and, well, you can pretty much guess what happened after that.

"Alright guys it's time for the next battle announcement!" Marowak yelled as he came down the stairs. Eve perked up quickly, which of course made me loose my balance as I quickly fell out of my chair and face-planted on the floor.

Eve quickly jumped out of her chair and helped me up. "Are you ok Alex?" She asked me with some concern in her voice. I just rubbed the back of my neck in embarrassment while I nodded.

"Yeah Eve, I'm fine. Just lost my balance." I replied, blushing at how incredibly cute her pink eyes were. I swear her eyes are magical, even though she has no magic...

Marowak cleared his throat, getting our attention. "As I was saying. It's time for the next battle announcement. First, I'd like to say that the last battle was pretty amazing, and close at that. Congrats Flint. Now let's see...oh ok. It seems like one of our contestants would like to remain anonymous. And they will be going up against Alex Faron." Marowak announced. Who'd want to be anonymous in a competition? "Well, you know what to do. Your battle will start in a few minutes. Now I better get going." Marowak said as he hurried off up the stairs.

On my way over to the platform, I looked to my right to spot someone in a red hooded robe slowly walking to the other one. I tilted my head to the side. Could that be the person that Austin claimed to have seen before? I didn't have time to finish my thoughts though as I stepped onto the platform and it began to rise.

When I reached the stadium, I immediately heard Marowak's voice. "Hello all you people in the audience! Welcome to another exciting match of the preliminary round! Next we have a bit of mystery, but it should prove to be exciting nonetheless!" This guy had words for any situation. Never lost that peppy attitude either...

"Alright, now on this side of the battlefield we have a new member of Team Eviolite. Despite coming into the team roughly a week ago, he's already left his mark on the team by detecting and assisting in the arrest of a highly evasive criminal that had even elite teams baffled. Certainly no small thinker, we have Alex Faron!" Marowak announced to the crowd. The crowd went wild at that statement. Wow, I wonder how they'd react if I told them that my "detection" was some strange visions that showed me exactly what Drowsie was going to do. He was pretty powerful though, and I guess you can't really discredit yourself for a strange occurrence, but...what exactly was that? I lost my train of thought when Marowak spoke up again.

"And over here on this side of the battlefield we have an anonymous outsider. Not much is known about this person right now except that they'd prefer that their identity be left a secret, but the battle must go on! Please expect it to be a great one!" Marowak announced before the fog cleared around the same red hooded individual I had seen just a while ago. The atmosphere about this person just seemed...eerie and unusual... The stance, calm, and the robe flowing with the air in the room... It was kind of intimidating to be honest.

"Aaaaand, battle...begin!" Marowak shouted, but we just stood there, silence drifting throughout the dojo...or was that just my imagination? Deciding that I'd rather not take the chance of being taken by surprise or analyzed, I took the hasty approach, (which is usually out of character for me) taking off straight at my opponent. Again, there was no movement at all in my opponent.

Right when I came within attacking distance, I jumped up slightly, my tail glowing bright green, before I came down hard with a Leaf Blade. Strangely enough, right as my attack made contact, or rather was supposed to, my opponent disappeared completely. Canceling my attack quickly and looking around, I spotted someone above me. To my surprise, there was what looked to be a female riolu almost directly above me. Stealing a quick glance down at me, the unnamed riolu quickly grabbed something from what looked to be a small bag and it suddenly extended into what looked to be a large staff. Aiming the staff at me, she created a blue sphere from its tip and shot it straight at me. Luckily I reacted in time and back-flipped out of the way...even luckier that I did it twice since she had apparently shot two Aura Spheres.

She wasn't done yet though noting that as soon as she landed, she took two attempts at jabbing me with the staff and one full swing, which I cleverly avoided. This staff was going to be a huge problem. I needed my sword, but there were cameras everywhere. I needed some sort of cover so I could take it out of the void...

Luckily such a distraction came when she suddenly jumped, readying what looked to be a Mega Punch before she slammed it into the ground. I narrowly avoided it, which caused enough dust to be kicked into the air for me to pull out my sword without anyone noticing. Doing so carefully, I back-flipped to the wall and rebounded over the staff wielder, landing on the other side. If she could shoot an Aura Sphere from a staff, I figured that I could do the same with a sword and an Energy Ball, so I gave it a try. Focusing my energy to the tip of my sword, a decently sized green ball formed before I launched it at my enemy at full force. The Energy Ball made contact with her, forcing her into the wall before she could turn around.

Regaining her footing, she turned around to face me. She eyed my sword but she never gave a hint of surprise. In fact, her expression hadn't seemed to change from serious since she revealed herself. Now that I had a second to look at her, it appeared that her robe had in fact disappeared, replaced by a medium sized red cape that fluttered behind her with each movement. I was shaken from my thoughts when she suddenly pointed the staff away from herself, shooting an Aura Sphere backwards that seemed to propel herself forwards at an extremely fast rate. She had a full swing prepared for me when she reached me, but I blocked it with my sword. Doing so pushed me back a couple of feet, but she continued on with the close combat, running at me and swinging again.

This time after I blocked her downward strike, she swiped the other end of her staff below me so as to throw me off of my feet. I did a sideways flip over the staff's end and attempted to get in another Energy Ball since she had decided to go with the momentum of her last swing and spin, but she simply parried the sword out of the way when she came back around and kicked me backwards.

I hit the ground, went with it for a second, and flipped back onto my feet with a slide. Suddenly getting an idea, I sped back towards her, swinging quickly at the readied side of her staff. She blocked it of course, following up quickly with a downwards sweep under my legs which I back-flipped over. Seeing that her right side was momentarily unguarded, I rolled towards it. She quickly took notice of my action and tried to swing back at me, but I had already jumped high into the air and readied a strong Energy Ball which I quickly fired from the tip of my sword. The Energy Ball made contact with her, sending her flying across the arena, sliding before coming to a stop. She found her footing and looked back up at me before pointing her staff at me and readying an Aura Sphere. I did the same with my sword and an Energy Ball and we fired them at the same time. The two balls of energy collided at the center of the field, creating a massive explosion and kicking up a decent amount of dust. We then ran at each other at top speed, our weapons readied, but before we collided, I jumped and landed on her staff, using it to spring myself upwards. From up in the air, I repeated my strategy of shooting an Energy Ball at her from an aerial perspective. The Energy Ball collided with her again, this time with enough impact to send her across the arena and into the wall. When I landed, I looked over at the wall to see her get up. She struggled slightly, but managed to find her footing.

She looked back over at me with intensity in her eyes as she held her staff out in front of her. Then, as if it weren't enough, she spun around, twirling her staff as she went until it started growing and changing in form. When she stopped spinning, I noticed that a long blade had been produced out of the top, which she promptly struck into the ground. A huge scythe...great...and I see that the obsession with red continues. This...was quite nerve wracking.

She proceeded to launch herself towards me at a quick pace before turning around and striking at me with the blade, but instead of hitting me with it, she let it hang in the air space behind my head as she stared at me. Her expression could only be described as morbid, so I could tell that she was trying to intimidate me just from how sadistic she tried to make herself appear at the moment. Again, I had an idea. I played dumb and went with it for a while.

Acting horrified for a few seconds was surprisingly fun when you knew you had your enemy figured out. I had slowly been moving my sword into position as this progressed so I wouldn't be noticed. Then, with a quick smirk I struck hard at the shaft part of the scythe, knocking it out of the way long enough for me to elbow its owner in the stomach and fire a point blank Energy Ball in the same location. She was sent flying back a few feet before she shoved the blade of her scythe into the ground to stop her momentum. When she recovered she seemed a bit surprised at what I had just done. Nonetheless, she dashed back at me, scythe readied again, only for me to leap off of its shaft and land on the other side of her where I quickly followed up with one last Energy Ball. Right when it should have made contact though, she disappeared, this time without a trace seemingly.

"What the?" I asked out loud as I looked around for my opponent, but she never revealed herself. She had just disappeared, as if she had never been there. I was about to look around some more when a piece of paper suddenly landed on my face. When I pulled it off of my face, there was something written on it. It read: "Petals have eyes".

I tilted my head in confusion before I caught sight of yet another peculiar object. It was a single rose petal...and it was in the exact spot where my opponent had been moments ago. Petals. Hmm... My thoughts were interrupted when Marowak's voice shouted out to the audience.

"Wow! Ok, well this looks like a forfeit, but nonetheless that was amazing! Don't you agree folks?!" Marowak announced to the audience as they went wild. "Well with by far the most amazing combat we've seen yet, Alex Faron is the winner! But man was that a strange battle." 'Strange' could not even begin to describe this battle or this note, but even so I could worry about that later. Eve was probably freaking out right now.

* * *

 

**_ 11:30am, Marowak's Dojo, Eve's POV: _ **

"You had a freaking scythe to your neck and you decided that it was a good idea to hit it away from yourself?! You could have gotten yourself decapitated!" I yelled at Alex angrily. I was freaking out. He raised his hand to interject.

"Eve, calm down. The scythe wasn't against my neck. There was too much space for it to hit me." Alex explained to me, but I wasn't in the mood to listen.

"I don't care! What were you thinking?! You scared me! You...you..." I broke down into tears after that sentence.

Alex bent down and grabbed my paw. "Eve-" I cut him off by hugging him and crying into his chest.

"D-don't ever do a-anything like that a-again. Next time j-just lose." I said between sobs as Alex tried to calm me down. Everyone in the room was watching, but I knew they understood.

"Eve, look at me..." Alex said in a calm voice while patting my back. I did as he told me, picking my head up so I could stare into his eyes. "It's ok Eve. I promise, I won't do anything like that again. Especially not if this is how it effects you. And come on, you know me. I always think things through." He laughed, trying to cheer me up. I'd be a liar to say that it didn't. His laugh always did that... "Now, let's find a towel for your face." He joked, making me smile some more.

"Ugh, stop. I'm trying to be mad at you..." I fake whined with a laugh. He just smiled back.

"That's understandable. But if you're mad at me I won't cheer for you during your match." He joked again with a sly edge.

"...Fine." I smiled before we got up...well actually it's more like he picked me up and carried me to my seat. When Alex sat down, I turned to him to talk. "So who do you think that was anyway?" I asked him in confusion. I had never seen that riolu before, but I'm pretty sure that's who Austin saw moments before Drew's battle.

"I don't know, but whoever she was, she's not gone." Alex replied as he held up a piece of paper with the words, "petals have eyes" written on it.

"Oh...Mom and Dad are not gonna be happy about this..."

* * *

 

**_ 12:00pm, Marowak's Dojo, Eve's POV: _ **

Turns out I was right. Mom and Dad were not happy. What I did not expect was to see them here. I guess they were watching the tournament, but how did they know?

"Alex, I understand that you had a dust cloud as cover and the type of opponent you were facing wasn't exactly ordinary, but what you did was risky. You didn't have your sword when you went out there. People could get suspicious." My mother explained to Alex. "Especially with those monitors. I mean, practically the entire guild is watching them and they have a closer view than those above the arena."

Alex nodded his head, signifying that he understood. "I understand. I will admit that I have a tendency to take risks under pressure. The sword just happened to be the conclusion I came to at the time, given the situation." Mom seemed like she understood.

At her mentioning of the guild, I couldn't help but let out a nervous laugh. "Ehehe, well...about the guild..." In an instant, both of my parents' turned to me. It wasn't exactly pleasant either.

"What about it?" Dad asked me. There was some noticeable anxiety in his voice.

I twiddled my paws around. "Ehehe, well ya see, umm... They may, kinda...sort of, ya'know...know about...magic...because we kind of told them..." I answered in a complete nervous and jumbled up mess. When I said that we had told them, my parents froze with a look of complete and total shock on their faces. They actually looked kind of scared.

"Eve, how could you do that? You broke the wizard council's most sacred law...and with that many people... Honey, they could seal the entire Grace family line's magic. It's not something you can hide either, someone will find out." Mom explained, completely shocking me.

"What?! B-but we had to do it! Flare was gonna die!" For some reason, my parents paused at what I had just said.

"What do you mean? How?" Dad asked me. He seemed concerned.

"W-well, on our mission, the one to stop Drowsie, Flare got seriously hurt by a psycho cut and was seriously bleeding. There was nothing the guild could do, a-and her pulse was rapidly diminishing, so Luke had to perform a revival spell in front of everyone. We had no choice but to explain." I told them. They seemed to understand after that.

"Oh my! Well I'm glad to see that she's ok. This...this is different. There's an exception to the law. The council knew that situations like this might happen if wizards decided to live here in the normal world, so they made an exception. Basically, if a wizard is ever in a situation that demands the revelation of magic to save a life, then doing so is legal. It's also very commendable for young wizards to do so, since most know very little of the technicalities of wizard laws."

I let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, good. As long as no one gets their powers sealed. But you should really go tell Luke that you're proud of him. I have a feeling that he's still a little uneasy about breaking the law."

Mom let out a laugh. "We'll go do that, but remind us to go over wizard code with you guys." She said as they walked off."

Alex turned to me a few seconds after they left. "Well that went better than I expected."

Just as he said that, Austin called to us from the back of the room where he and Ally where seated together. "Hey Alex, come over here for a second." It sounded like it was important, so we headed over. When we arrived, Austin pressed the center button on his badge, touched a specific point on it and a screen with pictures of pokemon suddenly pulled up. "It turns out that when Marowak scanned our badges, it programmed a battle roster into them. It doesn't show anyone who hasn't competed, but look." He pointed to a point on the roster that said "Quarter Finals". Alex seemed to understand what he was getting at.

"Oh, I see. The quarter finals is a team battle round. They're already matching the winners of the preliminaries up. And we're teammates." He summed up with a smile. He gave Austin a high five...or three...or was it both?

Austin smirked. "Heh, you better not slow me down." He said with a laugh.

Alex took that as a challenge. "Oh please. Do you seriously expect me to be slow? You'll have a lot of room to take your time." He said, arms crossed with a smirk.

Austin smiled at that. "Nice one. But ya know what would be better? Completely obliterating our opponents with our amazing teamwork." They both laughed and fist bumped at that. I rolled my eyes. Boys...

"So who do you think is going up next? Austin, Connor, Drew and I have already battled. That leaves Eve, Flare, Ally and Luke." Alex summed up. We all shrugged. The whole preliminary round was random draw.

We were startled when a voice suddenly rang out from a speaker somewhere in the room. "Luke and Corphish, please enter the competition pods."

"Wow. I guess Marowak finally got tired of coming down here." Austin commented. We all laughed just as Luke entered the pod.

"Well guys, how about we go cheer for Luke? Watching these screens is a bit overwhelming." Ally suggested. We all nodded and left to do just that.

Marowak Dojo Arena, Luke's POV:

The smoke had just about cleared around me when I heard my name being called out. Same fashion as everybody else who'd battled so far. Marowak sure liked making himself be heard.

"And weeeelcome back to our grand opening tournament! That last battle was surely something to marvel at don't you agree folks?!" Marowak shouted, earning a massive roar of shouts and claps from the crowd in return. "Well, we will certainly enjoy seeing Alex in the quarter finals then, but now it is time for our next match! Over here on my right we have another member of Team Eviolite, and boy are there a lot of them! This young eevee here is a very recent recruit of the team and is the younger brother of the twins Ally and Eve! He has't done much for the team yet, but he reportedly saved the life of one of the team's members, Flare Wisp, just yesterday. Don't count him out of the excitement folks!"

"And over to my left we have Corphish, a member of Wigglytuff's guild. Corphish doesn't really have any specific responsibilities, but that doesn't make him any less of an important asset to the fine organization!" Marowak announced. "Now without further ado, let's get on with the match. Begin!"

And with that, I was of, and by off I mean agility. I ran at Corphish at top speed, covering the length of the arena in mere seconds, before I jumped above him, kicked off of the wall behind him, and slammed into his back with and iron tail.

He recovered quickly and shot a fast stream of water at me. I quickly jumped to the side, spinning horizontally. I just barely avoided the attack, and I didn't need to stick around for any more to come, so I prepared another iron tail while spinning in mid-air and used it to propel myself forward when I hit the ground. Speed was my ally in any battle, so I kept with it, speeding toward Corphish with all I had. He tried to keep up with a barrage of water guns, but I dodged every one of them as I approached. Just mere centimeters from him, I decided to just ram into him with a quick attack, but that proved to be a mistake when he suddenly changed his strategy and brought a hard crab-hammer to my forehead, sending me flying in the other direction and straight into the wall. "Ugh. Guy packs a punch..." I said as I shook my head clear of the pain and stood up only to see an ice beam coming in my direction.

I tried to avoid it in the same way I avoided the water gun attack, but as I was jumping, the ice beam struck my tail, freezing it to the wall. I fell to the ground and looked back at my now completely frozen tail. Getting back up, I looked back and fourth between it and Corphish and started getting nervous. "Ugh, man. How can I move like this? Ugh, ow!" I cried out when I foolishly tugged at my tail. "Wait a minute." I muttered as I looked between the ice and Corphish, who was coming at me with a crab-hammer readied. I waited for him to approach, and when he was just centimeters away, I pulled away slightly and let his attack break the ice. I wasn't prepared for his follow up punch however. It sent me straight into air and out of the Arena. Just then, a buzzer went off and Marowak's voice shouted out to the audience.

"Oooh! And it looks like Luke is out of the arena! That means that Corphish is the winner of the match, congratulations!" He shouted. What? I didn't know about that rule. Aww man.

* * *

 

**_ 12:30pm, Ally's POV: _ **

So Apparently we had to stay inside the arena or we lost. It was another way of knocking out your opponent. When I saw Luke coming our way, I ran up and gave him a hug. "Hey, nice job. I'm sorry you lost, but...how did you learn to fight like that?" I asked him curiously.

He seemed a bit startled by my question. "Huh, o-oh. Umm, Mom and Dad ya'know. They uh trained me." I tilted my head in confusion.

"They taught you that stuff? But you were so fast, and I've never seen an eevee flip like that or use an iron tail in that way." It was hard to believe that my parents used those techniques. I had seen them battle so many times before, but I had never seen them do anything like that. "I grew up with them Luke. I've never seen that."

"W-well they must've developed the technique while they were with me. I-I gotta go." He said nervously before running off.

"Hey, wait a minute. Luke!" I shouted after him. I was about to follow, but Austin stopped me.

He shook his head. "I don't think you should question him further on this. He doesn't seem to want to answer." I sighed and nodded in acceptance to his reasoning.

I produced a small smile. "Ok." I replied before pushing myself up onto my hind legs, putting my paws on Austin's shoulders for support, and giving him a short kiss. "It's weird though. It's like he was trying to hide something."

Austin looked in the direction Luke had run off to just seconds ago and frowned. "I'm sure it's nothing." He reassured me while stroking my side with his paw. "He's probably just a little upset about the match.

"I...I guess..." I hadn't really known my brother for very long, so I couldn't really tell what was wrong with him as well as I could with Eve.

Austin patted my head lightly to get my attention. This gesture had always stricken me as a bit unusual, but I didn't judge. "Hey. How about we head back to the contestant area? Sound good?"

I smiled and nodded in response. "Ok." I hugged him for a few seconds before we both headed off for the stairs.

I probably should've just stayed above the arena, because just as I arrived in the contestant area, my name and picture showed up on one of the large screens at the front of the room. Can't Marowak make up his mind on how to call us? I looked over at the other one and noticed the familiar face of Chatot displayed on it. I smirked slightly as I walked to the center of the room towards the pods. Chatot had apparently entered his pod early, which to me was a sign of either hastiness or overconfidence. I figured it was the latter. I gave a nod towards Austin before I stepped onto the platform inside the pod as it began to rise.

The pod finally stopped, but I couldn't tell where I was because of all of the fog stuff. Why didn't I tell them to turn this off? I asked myself as I ran straight out of it and onto the arena, ghasping for air. They should really check medical records...

"Oh... Well ok. I guess we'll start over here with Ally, the co-founder of Team Eviolite! Ally first agreed to form Team Eviolite with Austin on a path in Evolution Forest near Pokemon Square! Now they're one of the most talked about duos of our time!" Man, where does this guy get his information? We didn't even tell him anything about the start of our team.

"And over here~ we have Chatot of Wigglytuff's Guild." At the mentioning of Chatot's name, the whole arena went quiet...well, except for Wigglytuff. "Chatot is the second in command at the guild and is its head of intelligence, though he doesn't seem to be very poppular..."

"Oh come on!" Shouted Chatot from across the arena.

"Well there ya have it folks, and now its time for the battle to begin!...wait a second, where'd Ally go?!" Both Marowak and Chatot were confused by my sudden disappearance, when in fact I had simply used dig to go under ground. I had a fun idea for this battle. "Heh, he may be smart but let's see how well he learns from mistakes." I said to myself before I made three copies of myself using double team and sent them to each of the four corners of the arena. I took the fourth and came up from the ground.

"Hello Chatot." I greeted Chatot from behind him, momentarily freaking him out. "I have a question." I continued, giving him almost no room to breathe. He had a slightly confused expression on his face when I said that.

"Umm, a question? Really? During a battle? You can't be serious." His response was ignored as I stared at him unblinking. "Ok, fine. What is it?" He let out a sigh.

"How many dungeons are directly around treasure town?"  **(A/N: Just a random number)**  Chatot looked at me strangely.

"Well I don't exactly know why you'd want to know that, but there are fourteen." I raised my paw to interject, which seemed annoy him.

"Heh, wrong. There are fifteen. You probably forgot Beach Cave." Chatot seemed really annoyed after I said that.

"Why would you ask a question over something you already knew, much less if you were going to correct me?!" He asked in an aggravated tone.

"Well, I just wanted to see if you were as up to date with dungeons as I was. I guess you're not." I answered with a smirk. That really got him fired up.

"What?! How exactly does confusion with the amount of dungeons surrounding the town justify me as any less informed than you are?!" He asked, raising his voice.

"Well you said you were the head of intelligence. I would've thought you could answer such a simple minded question." That set him off.

"Why you little!" He yelled as he charged at me with a wing attack readied. I simply scooted to the side a little and tripped him with my leg. His own momentum carried him straight into the wall. I took that time to dig back under ground. I waited for Chatot to speak up again before I sent one of my copies up.

"My my young pupil. You know violence is not permitted in class." I made my copy say, careful not to laugh. Through the eyes of the copy, I could see that Chatot was still really annoyed.

"Pupil? What are you talking about?" Chatot asked my copy impatiently, seemingly unamused.

"You need to know more about dungeons, so I'll teach you. You're my student now." My copy smiled.

"What?! I do not need a teacher. Now enough of this childish fooling around Ally! This is a battle!" Chatot yelled as he tried using arial ace.

"Wrong choice." I tried to make my copy create a shadow ball and launch it, but a rather large ball of pink energy was created instead and it landed a direct hit on Chatot just as he was about to make contact with the copy. Chatot was sent flying to the center of the arena. By that time, my other copies had appeared from the ground. I made all of my copies use quick attack while I positioned myself directly underneath Chatot, waiting for the perfect moment to shoot up and strike. Just before my copies made contact with Chatot, I shot up from the ground. All four of the attacks hit him at once, causing a huge explosion.

When the dust cleared, (luckily I had decided to cover my mouth in time) Chatot was left unconscious on the floor next to me and my copies were nowhere to be seen. I turned around just as the crowd erupted into applause and cheers. I honestly didn't do that much though...

"And it looks like Ally is the winner! Congratulations Ally! You will be moving on to the quarter finals!" Marowak announced enthusiastically.

"Wow, Moon Blast. Didn't think I could learn that one." I said to myself in surprise.

My ear twitched just as I heard the sound of scuffling behind me. In a flash, I flipped myself up onto my right forepaw, charged up an iron tail, and met contact with a downward steel wing that Chatot had prepared to attack me with, all while maintaining a one pawed handstand. "Heh, I knew there had to be something going on. I wouldn't expect Wigglytuff's best friend to fall that easily, but faking it won't help."

"Woah, wait a minute! What just happened?! Chatot is up and looking perfectly healthy! And look at Ally! What flexibility! Something tells me this is about to get very interesting folks!" Marowak exclaimed in excitement.

Without a moments notice for Chatot, I jumped and flipped straight over Chatot and his attack, using my unused paw for extra momentum. This meant bad news for Chatot since once my tail moved away from his wing, he swung it straight into the ground and it got stuck. Once I was directly above Chatot, I slammed my tail into his head and sprung off the top of him, landing a couple of feet away. He let out a noticeable huff of air and gasped out a couple of times, signifying that the air had been knocked out of his lungs from the impact.

My tail lost its stiffness and returned to its naturally fluffy, lush state just as Chatot picked himself off the ground again. "I'm genuinely surprised with you Ally. Jokes on me for underestimating such an exceptional recruit, but believe me. This battle's about to get real." Chatot said with a smirk on his face before he disappeared.

"What?!" I exclaimed, looking around hurriedly for a second before standing my ground and listening, my ears raised up high and alert. I had spent many years out in Evolution Forest with a sneaky sister who loved pulling pranks and sneaking up on me, so naturally I was a great listener. After a few seconds of this, my ear twitched again and I immediately turned my head to the right. Swiftly turning in that direction, I leapt backwards, proceeding with a back-handspring and a backflip to avoid the arial ace that was aimed directly at me. I landed gracefully a few feet away just in time to see Chatot on his feet, looking completely unharmed. It would seem that he was very capable at landing at fast speeds seeing as he didn't smash his face in on impact.

I didn't give him any time to think however as I charged straight at him with quick attack. Surprisingly, he remained in his position, readying another steel wing. He must've thought that I would run into it or something. Either that or he had great timing, but I had s great idea. I had watched Luke battle before and had come up with a little variation on his spinning technique.

Just as I was within striking distance of both of our attacks, I jumped up slightly and spun vertically, or rather flipped rapidly, over Chatot and his attack. I stopped spinning just in time to hit the ground and slide a few feet. Reacting quickly, I charged up and fired my newly learned moon blast, scoring another direct hit on Chatot and sending him flying into the wall for the second time in the match.

"Wow. Moon Blast sure is powerful. No wonder sylveon like my mom are revered as strong fighters." I said to myself, admiring the raw power of the move. I had apparently said that a little too loud though.

"What? W-wait a minute. Did you just say that your mother is a sylveon?" Chatot asked me, getting up with a slight struggle.

"Umm, yeah. Her name's Ella Grace. Why? Do you know her or something?" I answered while tilting my head in confusion. I was made even more confused by Chatot's sudden gasp. "What? What is it?"

Chatot just stood there for a while. "Oh, excuse me. It's nothing. Never mind the question. Let's continue the battle." He replied strangely. This struck me as a bit odd, but I nodded nonetheless. I mean, when was Chatot not odd?

"Heh, ok. Fine by me." I agreed before shooting off at an angle towards the wall to my left. This seemed to confuse Chatot, contributing to his lack of movement. When I reached it, I jumped and kicked off of it, flipping upside down momentarily until I locked on to Chatot's location. Once I was sure I had him where I wanted him, I curled up into a ball, grabbing my hind legs and flipping backwards at a rapid pace. My tail had already hardened halfway down as I continued to gain momentum downwards and in my spinning. Then, just a few seconds later, I heard a loud grunt and a cry of pain as I crashed straight into Chatot, effectively slamming him straight into the ground.

I canceled out my spinning and quickly kicked off of the wall in front of me so I wouldn't slam into it. It was already evident that Chatot was down and out by the time I had landed, and the whole crowd including Marowak knew it. No doubt they loved the battle, considering the cheering was louder than Marowak's announcements.

I walked over to Chatot to help him up. "Was that battle real enough for you Chatot?" I asked him as I helped him to his feet. Surprisingly he was still conscious, but the chances of him being able to walk by himself after that beat-down were very low.

"Ugh. As much as I hate to admit it, yes...Indeed it was. You and Austin are as great as they say." He replied as I began to help him across the arena. "Ally, let me ask you something. Your sister...exactly why did she join the guild? She seems so childish."

I paused for a second to think before I answered. "Eve...Well. Eve's always been the, well I guess you could say the adventurous one. I've always wanted to be a famous rescuer, but Eve wanted much more than that. She's always been fascinated by mysteries, fantasies and folklore. And don't even get me started on treasure. But most of all, she wanted to travel the world. But of course to do that, you have to be trained. She's extremely passionate about this and would do anything to make her dream come true, so what could be better than becoming a member of one of the best guilds on the continent and training there?" I replied. "Oh and she's always wanted to meet Wigglytuff. He's like her idol." I finished with a laugh.

Chatot laughed lightly at that. "Sounds a lot like Wigglytuff to me." He said back when I finished. I tilted my head in confusion. "Don't think that just because Wigglytuff is strong that everything about exploring came natural to him. He certainly wouldn't have been able to travel the world as a little kid. He may have been what people call a prodigy but he needed a lot of help to be capable of travel. He's trained hundreds of teams in his day, but believe me, their's something he sees in your sister that hasn't come around in years.

"Umm...and what exactly would that be?" I asked him.

He looked like he was about to laugh. "How should I know? Wigglytuff is a mystery to everyone. Even me. But I'm pretty sure you could make a pretty good guess being her twin and all." He replied just as we climbed the stairs and exited the arena.

After that, there was no more talking. I helped him to his seat in the 'defeated section' and headed back to the contestant area. I immediately walked over to Austin when I got down there. "Hey have you seen Luke yet? He wasn't up there when I helped Chatot to his seat."

Austin thought for a moment. "Umm. I think he went to sit with your parents. Why?"

I looked down. I was a bit worried. "Do you think I freaked him out? He did seem a bit scared when I confronted him earlier."

Austin frowned. "Ally, I'm pretty sure that's not the case." He replied encouragingly. A smile soon followed. "Besides, you won and you should be happy. When did you learn to fight like that? I mean you were like an acrobat out there!"

He always knew how to cheer me up. "Umm...I don't know. I just sort of did it. It was pretty fun." I replied with a smile.

"Hmm, well I already checked the battle roster and it doesn't look like you're teammate or opponents have been announced yet. It hasn't put you with anyone." Austin informed me. I sighed.

"Oh well. I guess I can wait to find out who they are." I said just as the screen on the left side of the room brought up a display of Eve's picture. On the other side was Crogunk's. Both screens displayed a countdown clock with five minutes.

"I guess it's Eve's turn now. Crogunk better watch out." Flare said, walking over to us. "I'm just getting bored waiting for my match."

"Oh hi Flare. Where've you been?" I asked her.

"Huh? Oh I just went to see Drew for a while. Great match by the way. Oh and Eve better get here soon by the looks of it. She's been walking around up there with Alex." She replied. Just then, Eve came running down the stairs and straight up to me.

"Ally that was awesome! I've never seen you battle like that before. Not bad for a little sister." She exclaimed out of excitement.

"What? What do you mean "little sister"?! We're twins! We were born two minutes apart!" I almost yelled.

"Yep but I'm two minutes older." She said back. I put my paw to my face and sighed. "Anyway, what's going on guys?"

Flare pointed to the screens on the other side of the room. "It's your turn to battle next. Looks like you're facing Crogunk." She replied just as Alex walked up to us. He seemed tired for some reason.

"Ugh. Eve...don't ever...do that again..." He said while panting and leaning over.

"What did I do?" Eve asked him, tilting her head in confusion at his tired state.

"You ran off and left me behind. I knew where you were going but man this place is huge. I shouldn't have run." He replied before looking at the screens. "Oh good, you're battling next."

Eve's ear twitched. "Why's that good?"

Alex sat down on a chair. "Because I can finally rest." He replied. Eve raised her eyebrow at that.

"Hey! Oh no you don't! Get back here!" Eve said before she started chasing him around the room, eventually managing to pin him down.

Alex immediately started laughing. "Heh. Ok ok. I'm sorry." His face was pretty red by the time Eve let him get up. "Good luck in your match ok?" He said while laughing and holding her paw.

Eve smiled and looked over at the pods. Crogunk was already there. "Alright. I'll see you later Alex." She said before walking towards the pods. Alex got up and walked back over to us.

"Why did you do that?" I asked him with a slight laugh.

He smiled in satisfaction. "Just getting her fired up for the match. You didn't think my stamina was that low did ya? And there's no way hanging out with Eve is tiring." He replied, laughing lightly.

"Wow. I don't know whether to call you smart or just a really great actor. Oh and by the way, Eve loves it when you hold her paw, but if you really want to get to her, you should lightly scratch the fur under her neck. I don't know why, but she likes it." I informed him. "Don't just randomly do it though. It would only make things awkward if you did it at the wrong times."

He smiled at me. "You know don't you?"

"Hey, what can I say? My boyfriend has a big mouth." I replied jokingly.

"Hey! I'm right here ya know!" Austin almost yelled. We just laughed.

"Heh, sorry hun, but it's true." I laughed.

"...Fine."

* * *

 

**_ 1:30pm, Marowak Dojo Arena, Eve's POV: _ **

I wasn't really satisfied with the introductions. All Marowak really did was announce that I was part of Team Eviolite and that I was the twin sister of Ally. Then he moved on to Crogunk.

"Aaaand now it's time for the battle to begin!" Marowak shouted. Not a second later, Crogunk shot off towards me. I however, stood my ground.

"Hmm...alright then." I said to myself before I jumped up and landed on Crogunk's head. I immediately jumped off and landed right back where I had started. Crogunk slid to a stop a couple feet away looking unamused.

"Too many people begin their battles that way. It gets annoying ya know?" I commented with a dramatic yawn. Crogunk narrowed his eyes as one of his hands began to glow a dark purple color. Seconds later, he leapt high into the air, his arm angled in such a way that he would strike me when he came down. It didn't seem to faze him that I hadn't moved an inch since he had left the ground. When he came in for the strike, he did land a hit, but it wasn't exactly what he expected.

I had moved out of the way just in time for him to strike the ground and trigger a pitfall trap, which he promptly fell in. I walked over to the huge hole seconds later and peered down into it. "Hehehe. Now that's how you start off a battle!" I laughed before I formed a dark ball of energy in front of my mouth and shot it down the pit fall, scoring a direct hit on Crogunk. "And there's a little something to say I'm sorry. Bye!" I joked before I shot off across the arena using quick attack. Soon enough, Crogunk crawled out of the hole.

"Woah, look out!" I shouted as I rammed into him from behind, sending him reeling across the arena. Satisfied, I slid to a stop where he previously stood and smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of my head awkwardly. "Whew. Almost fell into my own trap. Ehehe."

As soon as I said that, Crogunk dashed straight towards me at a remarkable pace and attempted to hit me with one jab after the other. He sure was fast, I'll give him that much.

He seemed to get even more annoyed with every jab I dodged, which personally I found a bit amusing. "Come on, is that all you've got?" I taunted him while jumping and ducking consecutive strikes. The whole scene was pretty funny actually. We were moving across the length of the field like some kind of strange dance.

A plan came to me as soon as we began advancing on the wall of the arena, and I mentally smirked at the idea. Just as I was about to smack into the wall, I stopped myself and quickly put my paw up in front of me. "Woah, woah, woah. Hold it!" I shouted at Crogunk while taping my other forepaw on the ground impatiently. Crogunk immediately slid to a stop in front of me, staring blankly at my paw.

"What?" He asked me, sounding more confused than annoyed at the moment. He was probably thinking that I was weirder than Wigglytuff.

"Heh. I was just gonna give you a chance to hit me while I'm cornered since you can't hit me when I'm moving. I recommend target practice." I half-taunted, a smirk on my face. That got to him all right. As soon as I said that, his fist began to glow bright orange. Not a second later, he unleashed a powerful focus punch on me...or rather the wall. I had used a combination of quick attack and double team to sneak away without him noticing, and now his hand was stuck in the wall. Perfect.

I simply walked up behind him and touched his shoulder as he was struggling with his arm predicament. Right before he turned to see his 'shoulder tapper', I jumped straight above him and started gathering energy in my tail. By the time he looked up, my tail had already hardened into steel. I did a couple of flips and slammed down hard on his face with a well placed iron tail. What I didn't expect was that he was still able to grab my tail and use it to thrust me into the ground a couple of feet away.

I took a second to clear the blurriness from my vision before I glanced at my matted up fur. Oh man, he shouldn't have done that. "Ugh. So that's how ya wanna play huh?!" I bolted straight up from my position on the floor, eyes practically burning with anger. "You ruined my fur!" I shouted at him furiously. The impact from my iron tail seemed to have freed his arm, but I didn't care at the moment. This battle just got serious. In an instant, I closed in on him and shoved the flat of my paw straight into his stomach. He gave out a surprised grunt as he was sent straight into the wall with a sickening crack.

I didn't hesitate to advance on him again, closing in and preparing a rather large shadow ball before he had time to recover. Luckily for him, he picked himself up just in time to roll out of the way of the attack as it grazed right by him and crashed into the wall.

When the dust from the explosion cleared, Crogunk was nowhere to be seen. My eyes widened as I turned around and caught his purple glowing fist with both of my paws. Using his momentum to my advantage, I spun around on one foot three times whilst holding onto his arm before letting go and letting him fly across the arena. He landed in the center with a thud as I took off with quick attack. As I was running, I followed up with double team, creating four other copies of myself. He struggled to find his footing just as all four of my copies and I came rushing at him from five different directions.

Even though I was mad, I still had a few tricks left to use. As my copies and I approached, one went underground, two slid to a stop in front of him, another kept running straight at him and I jumped high into the air above him. My timing was spot on because as soon as I had risen as high as I could go, one of my copies had sent Crogunk straight up towards me using iron tail from beneath him. I immediately proceed with a downward iron tail to his face, hurtling him back down to the ground. Right when he was about to hit the ground however, my second copy came up from the ground and struck him hard, sending him sky high again. Copies three and four then jumped straight into the air, both charging up and firing consecutive shadow balls directly at Crogunk.

He hit the ground again with another sickening crack as I landed on my feet and my copies disappeared. When the dust cleared, Crogunk was unconscious.

"Heh, consider that payback." I commented before heading off towards the exit of the arena.

"Aaaand Crogunk is down and out! The winner is Eve of Team Eviolite, and what a fantastic win at that! Congratulations Eve, you move on to the quarter finals along with your sister! As for you Crogunk...you're gonna need some medical attention. Yeesh. Don't mess with that eevee." Marowak announced.

I shook my head with a slight laugh as I headed back down the stairs to the contestant area.

* * *

 

**_ 2:00pm, Marowak's Dojo Contestant Area, Misty's POV: _ **

"Wow, that eevee girl is strong! How are we supposed to compete with that?!" I exclaimed as I stared at the huge screen displaying the video feed of the eevee named Eve who just walked away from her battle practically unharmed.

"Misty I think you're overreacting a bit. The crogunk wasn't all that strong obviously, plus we're pretty tough as well. Travelers have to be." My friend Matt, a shinx, summed up. You could never trust Matt's opinions...

"Matt. That crogunk was from Wigglytuff's Guild. One of the best exploration guilds in the country, possibly the world. Eve is too, and her team's quite famous apparently. Did you see what her teammates did in their battles? Sure three of them got defeated, but..."

Matt looked at me and sighed. "Yeah I get it. We'll do fine though if we just focus. Now focus on being an emolga!"

I frowned at him. "What's that supposed to mean exactly?" Sometimes Matt made no sense. It was kind of funny actually.

"Oh uh...I don't know. Ehehe. Just focus on battling ok?" Matt said out of embarrassment while rubbing the back of his neck nervously. I just shook my head with a sigh and looked back up at the screens. What I saw shocked me. On one of the screens was my name and picture, and on the other was Matt's. It didn't appear that our battle was next however considering the considerable amount of time that was displayed on the screens as well.

"We're going against each other?!" I exclaimed, earning quite a few strange looks from the others in the room. Matt looked up and noticed the screens as well.

"Oh. So we are. Heh, I wish you good luck then." He said with way too little surprise for my taste. I hit him on the back of the head.

"Way to be concerned knuckle head!" I shouted at him, again earning quite a few strange looks.

"Ow! Hey! What's your problem?!" He complained, looking up at me with an angry look on his face. His expression softened when he saw the worry on my face. "Hey. What's wrong Misty? Something the matter?"

"Of course there's something the matter you moron!" I shouted at him angrily. He shrunk back a little. I took a minute to calm down before I continued. "I don't want to hurt you." I said in a small voice. His expression fell into one of sympathy at that statement.

"Oh..." He muttered before he placed one of his paws on my cheek. "Well... Don't think of it as hurting me then. Think of it as a friendly match. I promise it's ok. It's not like I'll be seriously injured or anything." He reassured, but I shook my head in disagreement.

"No. I...I'd still be hurting you. I-"

"Hey. It's ok. Don't worry about it. Heh. You don't think I'm that weak do you?" He joked. I laughed a little at that.

"O...Ok..." I replied. "But you owe me!" I continued, my voice taking a serious turn.

He just laughed. "Heh, alright fine. But I'm not holding back in the battle. I'm not gonna lose to my girlfriend." He replied. Oh he's so annoying!

"Why you!" I exclaimed, slightly annoyed as I hit him over the head again. I hugged him shortly after. "I'm not holding back either then."

I looked over to my right to see Eve come down the stairs and enter the contestant area. "Oh hey look. It's Eve." I informed Matt. He looked over to where I was pointing and produced a small smile.

"Heh. Let me guess. You want to go talk to her?" He asked me smugly. I gave him an unamused look.

"Of course I want to talk to her. She's strong and famous. Besides, she's an explorer from Wigglytuff's guild. She's bound to be pretty interesting." I replied.

"Ok, well come on then." Matt said, getting up and walking over to her.

"Huh?! Oh umm. Wait!" I exclaimed, scrambling to follow.

Matt walked up and intercepted Eve as she was making her way over to her seat. "Hello Eve. My name is Matt and this is my girlfriend Misty. She really wanted to meet you."

Eve looked over at me as I was walking up. "Oh umm. Hey. Why did you want to meet me exactly? I don't usually have people lining up to do so. My sister is the famous one."

Her sister? I looked over at the pokemon to my right to spot another eevee that looked exactly like Eve...well, except for the eyes. "Oh yeah. Ally. Your twin. Marowak said that she and her boyfriend Austin were the cofounders of the team. I guess that makes sense." Ally seemed to notice me and I quickly turned away, but it was too late. She and the rest of Team Eviolite walked up soon after.

"Hey Eve, who's this?" Asked one of the members, a snivy...Alex I think, as he walked up.

"Oh hey Alex. This is Misty and Matt. Misty wanted to meet me, so Matt brought her over here." Eve explained. "Misty, Matt. This is my best friend Alex and these are my friends Austin and Flare. You're already familiar with Ally I'm assuming." Eve introduced.

"Hey guys." Matt greeted. "So Eve. That was a great battle. How exactly did you make that pitfall trap?"

I hit Matt over the head for the third time today. "Hey! I wanted to ask that question!"

"Ow! Jeez, for someone who doesn't want to hurt me, you sure are doing a good job of bruising my head." Matt complained while rubbing his head.

Ally laughed. "Eve's pretty sneaky. No one's ever caught her setting her traps. What she did out there was child's play compared to what I've had to experience growing up with her. Believe me."

"Heh, a prankster huh?" I summed up. I glanced over at Austin to see him staring at Matt. "Umm, Austin. Are you ok there?"

He seemed to snap out of his trance after that. "Huh? Oh, eheheh. It's nothing. Sorry."

"Uh, ok then. Well how about we go watch the rest of the matches? Judging from the amount of time that was displayed next to our pictures, I'd say we have a while." We all nodded and headed on up the stairs.

* * *

 

**_ 1 hour later: _ **

Turns out, there were quite a lot of battles ahead of ours. They weren't as exciting as the previous ones, but they were at least interesting to watch. First, Leon the shop keeper won against Bidoof, one of the members of Wigglytuff's Guild. Chimecho and Diglet from the guild faced off afterwards with Chimecho as the victor. Sunflora's win over Dugtrio was...interesting to say the least. Weavile quickly defeated Pigeoto soon afterwards and Spinda defeated Wobaffet after a strange and confusing battle.

Not too long after, Matt and I were called down to the contestant area to prepare for our battle. "Good luck." Matt said to me as we were about to step into the pod things. I smirked at him.

"Heh. Thanks, but I'm pretty sure you're the one who'll need all of the luck." I laughed as I stepped into the pod.

3:00pm, Marowak Dojo Arena:

The familiar voice of Marowak rang out through the loud speakers just as the fog cleared the area. "Okaaaaay everybody! It's out with the old and in with the new, so let's get on to our next match! This match will be between two travelers from a distant continent! On the right side we have Misty, and on the left we have her boyfriend, Matt! Their relationship should make this next match an interesting one folks!" Wow. That guy really has a way with information. It's kind of creepy if ya think about it...

"Aaaand begin!" Marowak shouted, but neither of us moved. After seeing how all of the previous battles had began, I think it's pretty safe to say that we were kind of preoccupied with determining who would make the first move. Of course after a while Matt lost his focus and started messing with the dirt below him. Why must his attention span be so little?

"Hey! Pay attention moron!" I shouted as I threw a decently sized ball of electricity at him. He looked up just in time for the electro-ball to slam into his face, making me wince a bit as he hit the ground and slid a couple of feet. It didn't cause much harm of course, him being an electric type as well, but it still bothered me to attack him like that.

"What was I...Oh yeah! The battle!" He exclaimed while shaking off the previous hit like it never happened. "Misty, why are you just standing around?"

"Are you kidding me?!" I jumped into the air and started gliding towards him slowly. I smiled to myself. I just had to fall in love with the weirdo. Whelp, time to beat him up.

"Hey! Are we gonna battle or what Misty?" Matt challenged from below me. I smirked at that and readied a steel wing.

"Sure thing!" I seemed to startle him when I took a sudden nose dive straight towards him, my right wing-like thing cloaked in steel. The next startling realization happened with the sound of steel hitting against itself. I had never fought Matt before (obviously) and I had no idea he could use iron tail, let alone react as fast as he did.

"What?!" I exclaimed as he smirked at me in mid-air.

"Heh, that won't work!~" It was at that moment that I noticed that his tail was wrapped around my arm. "And goodbye!" He suddenly twisted around, pulling me around with him in the process, and used the excess momentum to fling me down towards the ground. I couldn't stop myself in time, so you could say it was a pretty good face-plant.

"Ow-oww! Man that hurt!" I muttered as I pushed myself to my feet. Amazingly Matt had seemed to land perfectly for once. "Ok that's it! It's on!"

"Right! Let's go then. The people are wait-woah!" Matt's sentence was interrupted by another one of my electro-balls, which he barely dodged. "Wow! You didn't even let me finish my sentence. This is gonna be fun!" He sped off in a random direction, confusing me a bit.

"What? Can't you sit still?!" I complained as I shot electro-ball after electro ball at him, each of them missing. Hmm... He's got to attempt a strike sometime, and soon since he wouldn't want to wear himself out. What is he doing anyway?

Finally I locked on to his location and shot straight towards him. Upon impact, I struck him repetitively in his side. Surprisingly, this action stopped his forward momentum and sent him sliding sideways. I finished it off with a swift, powerful punch that sent him reeling into the wall of the Arena.

"Ugh... Nice one." He muttered as he got up. "Whelp, can't stop there." Matt's paws suddenly took on a rainbow like aura. He swiftly forced them outwards, producing a colorful beam that raced towards me.

"Signal beam?!" I exclaimed, a bit startled that he knew a bug type attack. Recovering quickly from my surprise, I launched another electro-ball at the beam and the two attacks exploded upon impact. I took that as a chance to surprise him. I took off into the dust with quick attack at top speed knowing exactly what I had to do.

When I came out the other side, Matt was already waiting for me, but my plan would work regardless.

"Heh, I already told you that head on attacks won't work on me!" He taunted. I pretended to play along with what he had said.

"Ok, I guess you're right..." I replied while winking at him. "Ya know, there are plenty of romantic places around this area to go to. Could you take me somewhere after we're done here? Please?" I fake begged, forcing my eyes open wider in an attempt to look cuter. I walked up to him, trying to look oblivious to the small blush that had appeared on his face.

"Uh-umm..." He stuttered nervously as I approached. I put my hand to his cheek.

"Just you and me under the stars. Hmm?" I asked him before kissing him on the cheek. His face lit up bright red after that. Man he was so easy to manipulate. I mentally laughed at my oblivious boyfriend before kicking him hard in the face and lifting his special band from him.

"Oww! That was pretty rough... Wait a minute! Hey! My special band! Misty! No fair! Give it back!" He complained. I simply winked back at him.

"Sorry Matt. You're the one who wanted a battle though. But don't worry. I promise you we'll go on a date after this tournament." I laughed before uppercutting him with a strong focus punch that sent him flying out of the arena, affectively ending the match. "I love you!" I shouted out to him with a wave of my paw just as Marowak began to announce my victory.

* * *

 

**_ Marowak's Dojo Contestant Area, Flare's POV: _ **

"Wow, she just punched her boyfriend out of the arena." I said to myself as I watched the end of Misty and Matt's battle. Misty was surprisingly sneaky, just like someone else I knew... I snook a quick look over a Eve. Anyway, it looked like Marowak was trying to rush for time considering the next couple of contestants were called upon right at the conclusion of Misty's victory announcement. Not too long after, my picture along with one of the poochyena brother's appeared on the screens along with a countdown clock just like with Misty and Matt. Yep...I was last to go.

"Yes! Ally, come here!" Eve suddenly shouted, causing me to look over in her direction. She looked pretty excited, so I decided to check it out as well.

"What is it Eve?" Ally asked her sister, quite confused to see her so focused on her badge. Eve rarely focused on one thing for more than a minute, unless of course that "thing" was Alex. Hehehe.

"Oh, it's the battle line-up for the quarter finals! Guess who you're teamed up with!" Eve exclaimed, sounding pretty excited.

"Hmm... Let me guess. It's you isn't it?" Ally replied. Eve nodded excitedly.

"It's awesome isn't it? The Grace twins are gonna kick some butt in the quarter finals!" Eve declared. Ally let out a nervous laugh.

"Now let's not get ahead of ourselves ok? Ehehe." She replied, trying to calm Eve down. "But still, it is pretty cool that we're teammates, besides the blatantly obvious fact that it's a little unusual for me not to be fighting alongside Austin."

Eve tilted her head at that comment. "Oh, well yeah I guess that is weird...but you'll be fine. I'm sure you can last one team battle without him." She laughed.

"So Eve. Does it say who you're competing against?" I asked her curiously. I hadn't asked the others recently, so I wasn't exactly sure.

"Huh? Oh, no it doesn't. I guess it depends on this next battle and yours, in which case if we're competing against you, you better watch out. The others already have their match-ups. We're the only one's left." Eve smirked at me.

"Heh, we'll just see about that. Drew and I weren't exactly cruising before we met you guys ya know." I winked at her.

"Hmm. Challenge accepted." Eve replied. Ally just sighed, her paw over her face.

"Hey guys!" Misty greeted as she came down the stairs followed by Austin and Alex.

"Oh hey! That was a great battle Misty! Is Matt's face ok? That looked pretty painful." I replied.

Misty laughed. "Yeah he's fine. I didn't hurt him too bad. That focus punch wasn't at full power. Anyway, it looks like I'll be going against Austin and Alex here in the quarter finals. My partner is named Mari, though I don't really know who she is. I guess I really wasn't paying attention during her match or something."

"Oh Mari? She's over there. That mudkip over there next to the growlithe. His name is Flint if ya need to know. They're dating, but that's pretty much it. You can go talk to them if you want. They're pretty nice if you ask me." I explained.

Misty looked over in the direction I pointed. "Oh, thanks. Well I'll see you guys later then." She waved to us before running off to talk to Mari.

"Heh, you better not let your guard down guys. You know how Mari is and Misty's pretty sneaky, so they'll be a pretty tough pair no doubt." Eve warned Austin and Alex.

"Yeah, we know that. That's what we're preparing for. Anyway, you should probably turn around. Your time is running a bit low now." I turned towards the screens to see I had just over three minutes left.

"Yep, and Wynaut just won his battle. Looks like you're up fire-fox." Someone said while walking down the stairs. After a few seconds, the speaker was revealed to be Craig. Eve's expression immediately hardened.

"What are you doing here Craig?!" Eve half shouted at him.

"Uhh, in case you haven't noticed. I'm still a contestant. Now what's your problem anyway?" He asked back, obviously annoyed.

"What's my problem?! You beat my friend up! And it wasn't at all friendly!" It was clear that these two weren't gonna let up.

"Ugh. Look, I'm sorry your friend got hurt because of my battle style, but just give it up ok? Whatever your problem is with me, it doesn't matter. Your friend is fine." Craig argued before silently walking off.

"Well you umm...umm... Ugh, whatever..." Eve gave up, turning back to face us just as the time ran out on my countdown clock and I was called to battle.

"Well I guess I'll see you guys later then." I waved to them as I walked over to the pods.

* * *

 

**_ Marowak's Dojo Arena: _ **

"Aaaand heeelooo everybody! Welcome to our last preliminary round. This round will be between the final member of Team Eviolite, Flare and one of the Poochyena brothers! Flare's the vulpix you see over here on the right and currently she's the youngest of the Team Eviolite members!" Marowak announced. Soon after, he introduced Poochyena.

"And with those introductions out of the way, it's time for our final preliminary battle to begin!" He exclaimed, signaling the beginning of the match.

Poochyena suddenly charged at me, a ball of dark energy forming in his mouth. I waited for him to launch it before I jumped straight to the side and closed in on him. The shadow ball crashed into the arena wall just as I unleashed a powerful flamethrower on Poochyena, pushing him back a bit and causing some noticeable burns.

I didn't stop there. Just as he was recovering, I ran up and slammed into him using flame charge. He flew back across the arena and skidded to a stop back at its center.

He struggled to his feet and shot forward a second time soon after. I prepared myself to evade, but he suddenly jumped high into the air and landed behind me, preparing to use shadow ball once again. Finished time. I back-flipped straight over the shadow ball as he shot it off and landed straight on top of him. Then I launched a point-blank flamethrower at him that also worked to propel me straight into the air. As I came down, my tail hardened into iron and I swiftly slammed it into Poochyena's head.

I landed on my feet gracefully a few short seconds later, staring down at the unconscious form of Poochyena.

"And it looks like the winner of the last preliminary match is Flare of Team Eviolite! Congratulations Flare!" Marowak announced.

"Whelp. Looks like I'm going up against the "Grace Twins" now." I laughed as I exited the arena.

* * *

 

**_ 3:30pm, Marowak's Dojo Contestant Area, Alex's POV: _ **

(Hmm... So Flare won. That just leaves her, Austin, Ally, Eve, and myself. Five out of eight is pretty good I guess... Though the fact that three of us were defeated means that we should watch our backs. And that Craig guy worries me a bit...) While I was thinking, I hadn't noticed Eve walk up. Apparently she had been trying to get my attention for the past five minutes.

"Hellooo~ Come on! Earth to Alex." She waved her paw in front of my face in an attempt to snap me out of my thoughts. I blinked a couple of times and turned to see her looking quite annoyed.

"Hmm? Oh. Heh, sorry Eve. I was just thinking about the competition." I smiled nervously as I rubbed the back of my neck out of embarrassment. She just sighed.

"Heh. You and your thinking. Even smart people take a break from that ya know?" She joked. "Besides, the quarter finals don't start for another fifteen minutes and I kinda wanted to talk to you." She seemed to be fidgeting with her paws, exhibiting anxiety despite the joyous mood she was putting on. Hmm...

I gave her a warm smile. "Talk? Heh, what about? Don't we talk all the time?" Her eyes widened slightly in response.

"Huh?! Oh umm... Y-yeah! But I just uhh...well... T-this is different ok?!" Eve managed. My amused smile seemed to annoy her. "What?!"

I laughed lightly in response. "Heh, it's ok. Go on. We can talk about anything. I'm not making fun of you ya know?"

She laughed in response. "Heh, I guess so... W-well, I umm... Well ya know how we've been friends for a while now?"

I tilted my head in slight confusion. "Well yeah, but...what about it?" From how nervous she was getting and that question I could only assume that this had something to do with that secret admirer letter she had slipped under my door. She was so hard to keep up with though. First she's flirting with me, then she's so nervous she can barely talk to me. She was weird...but then again, so was everyone else I had met here. Not that there was anything wrong with weird anyway.

"Well I was just thinking that...umm... Could you umm..." She let out a sigh, seemingly working up some courage. "Could you stay?" She seemed a bit resigned, like that hadn't been her original question.

"Hmm? Stay? What do ya mean?" The question just seemed to come out of nowhere, and it didn't exactly have any specifications. She had a look of guilt on her face for some reason.

"I mean, well. Humans aren't from this world... You want to be one again don't you?" She explained. I should've guessed that's what she meant, but I honestly hadn't given that much of a thought.

"Oh... Look, Eve. Honestly, the thought never occurred to me. I kinda like being a snivy and an explorer." I replied with a gentle smile. She looked like she hadn't been expecting that kind of answer. "And ya don't have to feel guilty for asking me to stay. That's called being a good friend. Just shows you care about me."

In her eyes I saw reflections of pure joy but her expression only showed confusion. "I...I... You don't want to be human? Just like that? You... You wanna stay?" I nodded. "But why?"

I didn't feel like that needed an answer, so I simply wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into a hug. "Do you really need an answer for that?"

Eve laid her head against my chest. "Oh...guess not..."

"Hey love birds!" Someone shouted from behind us, making us jump up in surprise. We were both embarrassed to say the least, and of course the voice belonged to Austin. "Oops, sorry. Ehehe. Didn't mean to interrupt your moment."

"We weren't having a moment!" We both shouted, causing him to raise his eyebrow.

"We were just talking." Eve explained. Austin didn't seem to buy it however.

"Really? Seemed like you were really enjoying yourselves there. Must've been some conversation. Hehe." He laughed.

I rolled my eyes. "You probably only saw us hug. It was really just a conversation. Then you startled us."

"Oh really?" He questioned.

"Yep. It was pretty nice until you shouted like that."

"So you admit you had a moment!" He shouted triumphantly.

"What?! No we didn't! Where'd ya get that from?!" Was he just messing with us or something?

"Fine, whatever. Our match is next Alex. That's what I really came to tell you. We need to get ready. Partners and all. Remember?" Austin resigned.

I just sighed. "Yeah I figured as much. How long?" I asked him, seeing no timer on the screens next to our pictures, which where now placed on the screen in rows of two.

"Eh, probably five minutes. It showed up on the screen a few seconds ago. Marowak'll probably come down and tell us when." He summed up. I guess he could be right considering the entrance platforms hadn't been lowered yet.

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt to check for ourselves. If he's just going to come down here, I see no reason why we should wait for him. And if we are supposed to be down here, they'll just call us back." Austin, Eve and I made our way up the stairs and to the arena level to find that Marowak was nowhere to be seen. I assumed that Eve wanted to cheer me on. It made me feel a bit guilty for not inviting her to come along, but she didn't seem to mind.

Peculiarly, it seemed as if the contestant floor lifts had been shut down and were now being used simply for the arena itself. "That's odd." I looked over to my right to see a vulpix standing by the railing. It didn't have the same coloring as Flare though. Most of its fur was a bright golden color. Its tails and "hair" were a light orange color and the fur around its paws and its underside was a light brown. Regardless, this odd coloration didn't surprise me at all. Perhaps I had known the term for it before I had lost my memory. "I'll be right back guys."

I walked over to the odd colored vulpix who seemed to be waiting patiently for any sort of excitement to occur. "Exciting tournament huh?" I asked casually, staring out over the railing and to the shut-down platforms.

She looked over at me suspiciously. "Yeah it is... Might I ask who you are?" She looked at me for a second before her eyes lit up with realization. "Wait a minute. You're one of the contestants aren't you? Alex was it? You're from Team Eviolite."

"Heh, well it seems I don't have to introduce myself after all." I laughed before looking back out at the arena. "You wouldn't happen to know why they shut down those platforms would you?" I asked while pointing to said platforms.

"Hmm?" She looked over to where I was pointing. "Oh those? I heard that they got shut down because one of the contestants has asthma and the smoke that goes with them can't be turned off. They got shut down due to health risk. I suppose there would be other ways to get around it, but all of the contestants have been introduced anyway." She explained. So that's why... "Come to think of it, I believe the contestant was part of your team. Ally right? Apparently, she's pretty famous."

"Yeah, I guess she is. Still, to shut that down for one person... I suppose it's for the best." At that moment, Eve came running up to me.

"Hey Alex. Who's this?" I couldn't exactly tell, but she sounded a bit jealous. I suppose it was due to the way I walked over here.

"Oh. It seems I didn't catch your name." I said curiously.

"Heh, it's Esuna. And you're Eve, correct?" She asked Eve, turning to her. "You beat that Crogunk fellow pretty badly. You're pretty fierce."

Eve looked kind of surprised. "Oh, uh. Thanks." At that moment, Marowak walked by.

"Oh hello Alex, Eve and Austin." He greeted. "It seems you've made a friend here. In any case, it seems that you have one more person to cheer on you because it's time for your battle. Austin and Alex, if you will, go ahead and head down to the left side of the arena. Your opponents will be there shortly." He requested before walking off. Luckily, I had kept my sword out as to not cause suspicion when using it.

Austin and I said farewell to Eve and Esuna and headed down the stairs to the arena. The roster said we'd be going against Mari and Misty, so we at least had the advantage in typing. The only problem with Misty is that she could fly.

A few minutes later, Mari and Misty showed up and Marowak came to the center of the arena with a microphone. "Alright ladies and gentleman! It's time to begin our quarter-finals! In this first match, we will have Austin and Alex go head to head with Mari and Misty!" He announced enthusiastically. "Now, let me explain the rules. This will be a doubles match. The battle will be decided if both team members of either side get knocked out of the arena or are unable to battle. The winning team will then advance to the second quarter round! Now, if there are no questions, you may begin!" He moved out of the way and to the edge of the arena.

None of us moved from our spots after he said that. Austin and I had already come up with a plan. Not sure about the other side. I unsheathed my sword and positioned it at a certain angle behind Austin. "You ready?" I asked him. We, of course, hadn't had time to try this out, so we didn't know how it was gonna play out.

Austin smirked. "Let's do it." He said before jumping up slightly. I positioned the flat end of the blade beneath him so he could land on it, and then, when I had built up enough leverage, I launched him straight into the air and at our opponents.

* * *

 

**_ Austin's POV: _ **

After Alex sent me flying into the air, he went to distract Mari while I aimed for her. When I found her, I pulled my fist back and let electricity flood into it. As soon as I heard the crackling of electricity, I made my move. "Thundeeeer Canon!" I shouted as I released the punch, sending a huge ball of electricity barreling down towards Mari. I had somehow managed to create this technique myself after learning how to use thunder-punch.

It seemed that Alex's attempt to distract her worked. The electric ball made direct contact with Mari, electrocuting her and slammed her straight into the wall. Unfortunately, Alex had failed to distract Misty. Just as I was about to land, she jumped up and pummeled me into the ground with her iron tail.

I slid to a stop face-down a few feet away. Even though I was flat down with my face to the floor, I could still hear her running at me. When the sound of her feet was at its peak, I flipped over and spun around using my hand as a pivot as I swept Misty off her feet. Acting quickly, I jumped up above her and readied a focus punch. When I came down however, she rolled out of the way just as I was about to hit her, making be hit the ground, cracking it a bit. Knowing she was fast, I flipped sideways with a readied iron tail.

We had apparently been thinking the same think as our two attacks clashed, iron tail to iron tail. "You sure are fast." I said as I took advantage of the situation, quickly placing my paw on the ground to support myself as I used it to over power her attack, throwing her into the ground. I had flipped myself over in the process, which gave me an extra split-second to deliver a direct focus-punch, sending her skidding across the ground all the way to the wall. "But I'm faster."

At that moment, Alex was sent flying towards me. I jumped up and caught him by the hand in mid-air. Thinking quickly, I launched him straight back in the direction he had come from. Mari had apparently begun to pursue him, but I'm sure she didn't expect him to come flying back at her at such a high speed, much less from the air. Before she could stop, Alex flipped around and slammed into her with a leaf-blade, knocking her right out of the arena as he slid to a slow stop. I didn't have much time to celebrate before I was slammed hard in the side by Misty, knocking me straight into the left side wall of the arena. Luckily, I was able to land with my feet to the wall and bounce back. Before Misty could react again, I readied an iron tail and struck down on her when I came within range. Apparently, Alex had the same idea considering we hit her at the same time, slamming her into the ground and knocking her unconscious.

Alex and I landed just as Marowak began to announce the winning team. "And that's it! The winners of this match are Austin and Alex of Team Eviolite! Congratulations guys, you're moving on to the second round!"

We both leaned down and helped Misty up. "Ugh... Thanks guys. Nice hit. Ya got us." She complemented as we exited the arena.

We separated from Misty at the stairs, who was then tended to by the medical staff, as we made our way over to where Eve had previously been, only to find that she had left.

"Looking for your eevee friend are you?" Said a familiar voice from off to the side. We turned to see that Esuna was still standing by the railing. "If you are, ya just missed her. She walked off with another eevee that looked a lot like her a few minutes ago. Said they were gonna work on strategy. Nice work out there by the way." She smiled.

"Heh, thanks. You don't happen to know where they went do you?" I asked, practically blowing off the complement, earning an elbow to the side from Alex. "Ugh, hey!"

Esuna laughed. "No, not really. This place is huge, which is why I don't really like to leave my seat too often. I only left because the battles were getting exciting and I wanted a closer look."

Alex looked around, seemingly scanning the building. "Where do you sit exactly? If you wanted to get a closer look so badly that you left your comfort zone then it must've been somewhere high up."

Esuna nodded. "You're correct. I sit up there." She pointed up towards the row of seats where Marowak sat last round for introductions.

"You're actually allowed to sit up there?" I asked her in surprise. I was pretty sure that those seats were reserved for staff or something considering they were always empty when I looked up there.

"Yep. My parents are friends with Marowak, so I'm allowed free run of this place. They were supposed to be here today, but something came up." She explained. Friends with Marowak? Hmm... "Anyway, so the next match is gonna start. How about you two stay up here and watch with me? It's kind of boring up here alone and since I'm not a contestant, I can't go down into your waiting area...well actually I could, but like Alex said, I want to be close to the excitement."

"Ok, sure. Not like we have much else to do. Ally and Eve are busy, two of our members have been defeated, who knows where Luke is, and I think this is Flare's battle." I agreed. Alex nodded along as we stood by the railing, waiting for the match to begin.

* * *

 

**_ 4:00pm, practice field near Marowak's Dojo, Eve's POV: _ **

Ally and I had left to plan for our battle immediately after Alex's battle had ended. I felt kind of bad for not staying there to congratulate him, but I had my own battle I had to worry about. Surprisingly, there was a practice field set up next to the dojo that we hadn't noticed before. It was probably because of the huge crowd that had gathered when we first got here.

"So Ally. What big ideas did ya say you had? It's nice to be outside and all, but I didn't even get to congratulate Alex. By the way, did ya meet-"

"Sorry Eve, but we need to prepare." Ally interrupted me, turning around after scoping out the area. "You saw me use Moon Blast right?"

"What? No way! You learned Moon Blast!? No fair! That's my favorite move!" I whined. I hadn't really seen her use it, but what I said was the truth. When I was little I used to see my mom use it in battle. It was so awesome. I wanted to learn it more than anything. Maybe Ally could teach me...

Ally sighed heavily. "Ok so I'll take that as a no. Anyway, I was thinking that we could combo that with a few attacks. Maybe we could trick our opponents somehow." Hmm? Ally was thinking about tricks? Hehe, I better take over.

"Hehehe, Ally my twin. Leave the tricks to the pros...and by 'pros' I mean me." Ally didn't seem too amused by my comment. "Now, attack me with Moon Blast! Give it all you've got!"

Ally seemed surprised. "What? I'm not just gonna attack my sister with such a powerful attack. Why should I?"

"Come on, hurry up. I'm getting bored. Just trust me." I urged her. I really did have an idea, but she better be ready.

Ally sighed yet again. "Alright, fine. But if you get hurt because of me, you have to explain it to Mom. Ally closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them, they were the same color as mine. "I don't know why, but this happens when I do it."

"Cool! Now we REALLY look like twins!" I exclaimed excitedly. Ally laughed a bit at that.

"Hope you're ready." She said before forming a huge, bright pink ball of energy in front of her mouth.

"I'm ready alright. The question is, are you?" I asked her, quite to her confusion. Then, before the pink ball could explode, she launched it towards me. Luckily, I was pretty fast at preparing for Iron Tail. Right before it could hit me, I jumped up and slammed my stiffened tail into it, sending it straight back at her, quite to her surprise. "Hurry up and hit it back!"

She seemed to get the picture, recovering from her surprise fast enough to mimic what I had done, sending it back at me. The Moon Blast seemed to have grown each time we had hit it. I guess it could absorb some energy from or attacks.

I jumped up and hit it one more time, this time in the direction of a huge boulder off to my side. When the attack collided with it, there was a huge explosion that rung out across the field, sending dust flying out everywhere. I gasped. "Ally!" I used quick attack to cross the distance between me and her. I quickly grabbed her and dived out of the reach of the dust. "Phew. Didn't realize it would be so big. Are you ok?" Ally seemed to be coughing a little.

"Ugh. Yeah I'm (cough) fine. Just thing before you (cough) do something like that again." I sighed in relief. She didn't seem to be having an asthma attack or anything. That wouldn't have been fun...

Ally seemed to notice how I was looking at her and sighed. "Eve, it's ok. You didn't mean to. I mean, sure you prank me a lot, but I know you'd never mean to hurt me. I'm fine." She reassured me as she got up. "But still, that was a really good idea. Imagine what we could do in the arena with that strategy." I smiled at that.

"Hehehe, yeah! It'll be awesome! We'll win for sure!" I shouted. "Now let's get to work."

* * *

 

**_ 30 minutes later: _ **

After a little more practice and strategic planning, we each ate an oran berry and re-entered the dojo. Upon entering, we saw Luke standing over by the stairs to the waiting area. I hadn't seen him in a while. "Hey Luke! Where've you been?" I asked him as we walked up.

"Hmm?" Luke asked as he turned his head to face me. "O-ohh, umm. I went to sit with Mom and Dad. Sorry if I worried you..." He trailed off as he returned to staring straight ahead. What could possibly be so interesting that he could just stare at it like that? I looked over in the direction he was staring and spotted Esuna. Oohhhh...

I gave Ally an amused look and pointed over towards Esuna. She seemed to get the picture. "Who is that?" She whispered in my ear.

"That's Esuna. We met her before Austin and Alex's battle. She explained why they weren't using the lift platforms anymore." I whispered back. "In any case, it looks like someone admires her."

"Well should we do anything? I seriously doubt he's had any experience with girls." Ally whispered again. Hopefully he couldn't hear us.

"No, not yet. I don't think sending him over there in this state will do any good." I whispered back.

"Ok Luke, well we're gonna go find out how the other matches went. We'll see ya later." I said to him as we began to descend the stairs. "By the way, if ya want her to notice you, just go talk to her." That seemed to snap him out of it.

"Huh? Wait a minute. Eve!" He pleaded, but I had already descended the stairs. "Ugh..."

* * *

 

**_ Contestant Waiting Area: _ **

Down in the waiting area, we found out that Craig and Flint had made short work of their opponents, Leon and Spinda, after Austin and Alex had moved on to the next round. Then in the third match, Weevile and Corphish defeated Chimecho and Sunflora.

"Rrrgg! That Craig! If he ends up as my opponent, I'll make him pay for what he did to Connor!" I vented angrily. Alex patted me on the back to calm me down.

"Woah, woah. Calm down Eve. Getting angry about it won't do any good. I'm sure Connor can wait a little for you to get revenge." He laughed.

I nodded. "I guess so..."

"Besides, you should worry about your own battle now. You and Ally are up next. In fact, I'd say you should go now. Marowak hasn't been calling anyone up there for some reason. I think he expects us to know when it's time. Either that or he's become lazy and doesn't want to do his job...not that it would change anything. You should probably go." Alex suggested. I nodded and hugged him.

"Ok. I'll see you in the second round then. Cheer for me!" I said as I raced up the stairs, Ally following closely behind.

* * *

 

**_ 4:30pm, Marowak's Dojo Arena: _ **

"Heeeloooo everybody! It's time for our final match in this round! This match will be between... Ooh, it looks like we have members of the Team Eviolite group on different sides here. This should be interesting." Marowak announced. "Over on my left, we have Wynaut and Flare of Team Eviolite! And on the right we have the twin sisters of the team, Ally and Eve of Team Eviolite! There's not doubt about it folks. This'll be interesting! Begin when you're ready!"

As soon as he said "begin", Ally dug underground and I shot off towards Fare using quick attack. Being one of my close friends, I was sure she had figured out how I fight by now, but today I had something new planned. I'd just have to play it out like normal until then.

As I approached, Flare fired an immense stream of fire straight at me. I leapt right over it, arms stretched out in front of me, before I flipped around and swiped my tail, sending quite a few yellow star-shaped objects flying down at the stream of fire and at Flare.

Part of the swift cut the flamethrower in half just in time for me to land, while the other part landed a direct hit on Flare, pushing her back against the wall. Suddenly my ear twitched as I jumped up, flipping sideways to avoid Wynaut's mud shot, and landed awkwardly on my feet. "Man, shouldn't forget about him."

I cut my vision to the side to see Ally pop out of the ground some distance away. Luckily, no one else saw it. Our plan was to have Ally dig a system of tunnels below the arena for our attacks to pass through, but normally it would be extremely hard to do so with two opponents as obstacles. Because of this, we devised a plan in which Ally would dig the tunnels, but wouldn't open them until she had finished them all. That way our plan wouldn't be discovered before we completed it.

Time to distract them! I jumped high into the air and started charging up an shadow ball. When it was big enough, I launched it at the ground between Flare and Wynaut where it exploded, kicking up enough dust to cloud their vision.

When the dust cleared, Flare and Wynaut were left in a state of bewilderment at what they saw. The entire field was covered in holes, more than I had expected actually.

"What's this!? Oh, it looks like Ally and Eve have tripped up their opponents by littering the field with holes while they weren't watching! What an exciting turn!" Marowak announced.

Ally walked over to me from one of the holes and nodded. "Ready to start?"

"You bet!" I replied as I dashed off across the field. As soon as I got over there, Ally took a deep breath and her eyes became pink like before. Then she charged up a ball of pink energy and shot it straight at me, quite to our opponent's confusion.

When it was about to hit me, I readied iron tail and slammed the pink ball down into the hole. By this time, I was pretty sure that they had figured out what the holes were for, but what they didn't know was that these holes were connected in sequential order. Each time we hit the moon blast into one of the holes, it got bigger and moved down the field in sequence with the tunnels, and with how fast the attack ended up going, I doubted they would be able to interfere without the consequence of getting blown up by a giant pink ball.

When the moon blast came up another hole on the opposite side, Ally was ready. She jumped up and sent it back down into the hole.

We continued to do this until we were back on Flare and Wynaut's side of the field. They seemed pretty reluctant to interfere, so we didn't have to worry about losing focus.

When the moon blast came up through one of the last holes, it was gigantic. It didn't even look like it should be able to fit into such small tunnels. "One more!" I shouted as I jumped up and slammed it back into the hole with my tail. There was one more hole in the center of the field that we knew it was bound to come out of. Ally and I nodded at each other from across the field as we both used quick attack to rush towards it. Just as an enormous moon blast shot out of the hole, we both jumped up and used our combined iron tail attacks to redirect it straight at Wynaut and Flare.

The attack made contact, Ally and I dove down into a hole, and soon an enormous explosion erupted, completely engulfing Wynaut and Flare. Ally and I stayed huddled down in our hole until the shock waves subsided and then we climbed up and popped our heads out of the hole. Both Wyanut and Flare were out cold, and there was a massive black scorch mark where the final attack had landed.

"We might have overdone it a bit..." I said to Ally as we climbed out of the hole and rushed over towards Flare.

"Flare are you ok?" I asked her worriedly. After a few seconds, she grunted and sat up.

"Ugh, yeah. I'm fine...A little burnt though..." She said tiredly. It was true, there were obvious signs of burns on her sides and back, and when we looked at our tails, they were slightly singed in a few places. It didn't particularly hurt though.

"Figures. You play with Moon Blast, and you get burned..." Ally sighed.

I just looked at her awkwardly. "Ehehe, oops. Sorry. Well we better heal everyo-" I was cut off by the roaring of the crowd as they erupted into cheers and applause.

"Hehe, wow! Amazing! I've never seen anything like that! Give it up for Ally and Eve from Team Eviolite! You girls are moving on to the next round! You've sure earned it!" Marowak announced excitedly. By that time, the medical staff had already come and examined Wynaut. We helped Flare up the stairs where we met back up with Esuna.

"Wow. You sure did take a beating out there. I think you guys overdid it." She commented. "Here, take this." She handed Flare a reviver seed, which completely healed her upon contact. "There, that's better. Now, I don't believe we've met before."

"Wow thanks." Flare said as we let go of her. "I didn't think reviver seeds worked like that. They usually just revive me when I faint and I don't pay much attention afterwards. And you're right, we haven't. My name's Flare."

"You would like to think reviver seeds work like that..." I started as I walked up to Esuna and picked up her paw. It started sparkling when I did so, and my expression grew into a smirk. "But they don't, do they Esunalini?"

Esuna looked shocked at what I had said. "I...I...I can explain!" She exclaimed, but I held up my paw to stop her.

"It's ok. We know about wizards. In fact, Austin and Ally are wizards too, so don't worry about any of that wizard code or laws or whatever." I reassured her. She seemed to calm down after that.

"Oh thank Arceus. Why did ya have to freak me out like that? You could've just told me." Esuna sighed in relief. "Phew. Well who could've known that Team Eviolite was run by wizards?"

"Actually a lot of people..." Flare said off to the side. Ally prodded her in the side to silence her.

"You really should be careful about doing that though. A real expert on pokemon items could catch you on that, and if they're not a wizard, then you're in trouble." Ally suggested. Esuna nodded.

Just then, our mom walked up and Esuna seemed to freeze up. "Hmm? Esuna? You ok?"

"Hello Ally and Eve. About what you did out there. We need to talk." At that, Ally and I froze up too. We're in trouble...

We turned around slowly to be met with Mom's stern gaze. "Ehehe, hey Mom..." Ally and I both said at the same time.

"Ally, how could you..." Mom started before she suddenly reached forward and put Ally in a death hug. "Not tell me that you learned Moon Blast?! That's so awesome honey!" She exclaimed excitedly.

"Ugh...Mom...can't breathe here." Ally struggled comically before Mom realized how tightly she had been hugging her.

"Oh! I'm sorry Ally. Ehehe." Mom released her from the hug. "Just got a bit too excited there."

For some reason, Esuna couldn't keep her eyes off of Mom. I walked up to her and waved my paw in front of my face. "Heelooo~. Earth to Esuna. Are you ok?" She blinked a couple times and looked at me.

"Huh? What is it...oh." Esuna managed as she looked back up at Mom again. "That's your mom huh?" At that moment, Mom turned towards Esuna.

"Oh hello. You must be one of Ally and Eve's friends right? I'm their Mom, Ella." Mom greeted.

"Nice to meet you Ella. I'm Esuna. By the way, does Eve always try to freak people out by making them think they gave away magic?" Esuna said as if nothing had even happened. Was it seriously that easy to calm her down?

Mom smiled. "So you're a wizard? That's nice to know." She held out her paw and suddenly a pink scarf appeared in it. She handed it to Esuna. "As thanks for being friends with my daughters." I looked at her strangely. Esuna seemed genuinely happy though. "Anyway, I should get back to my seat before the next round starts. See you three some other time."

Ally and I exchanged confused looks. "Umm, Esuna? What is that?" She really did seem happy.

"Hmm? Oh, heh. It's just a scarf..." She said as she smiled down at it.

* * *

 

**_ 5:00pm, Main Floor, Ally's POV: _ **

Apparently, Austin was up first in the second round, and to save time they went ahead and started immediately. Eve had already left to go back down to the contestant floor, and Esuna was...well...let's just say 'deep in thought'.

My battle was up next according to the roster, so it didn't really make much sense for me to leave, and I'll have to admit I was pretty interested in this battle. Because of the stage of the competition Austin's in, he'll likely take it more seriously. I've never really seen him fight his hardest, even on normal occasions because I was so focused on our missions...but... There's something that I'd really like to see him try...

"Aaaand Begin!" Marowak shouted. Austin shot off like a lightning bolt shortly after. His opponent was Corphish, and from the look on his face I could tell that he really didn't want to fight Austin.

"Hmm... Austin really has gotten faster. Is he doing some sort of training?" I said to myself absentmindedly as Austin quickly advanced on Corphish. He and Corphish both jumped at the same time and readied the same move, focus punch. The two attacks collided and remained neutral for a second before Austin put in a little more energy to overpower Corphish, sending him sliding along the ground and into the wall. I was kind of disappointed when I looked over the railing and saw that Corphish had forfeited.

"Yep." I sighed. "There's one of Wigglytuff's brave explorers..." I looked out across the arena and at Austin. "But still. I wonder if he'll do it..."

"And it seems that Corphish has forfeited the match, leaving the victory in the hands of Austin of Team Eviolite! We'll see ya in the semi-finals Austin!" Marowak announced as Austin began making his way up the stairs and over to us.

"By the way Ally. Do you even know what the prize is for winning this tournament? You seem so focused on battling with no particular motive." Esuna questioned. She hadn't spoken in so long that I had almost forgotten that she was there. I just smiled.

"Oh. Well we're never really in anything for the money. We're not really big fans of the fame either. This is just something we happened to come across I guess." Esuna's mouth hung low at that statement. "I do guess if the prize was something we needed it would be interesting, but...what is it exactly?" I asked her just as Austin walked up behind me.

"Oh. Well I guess since you're both here now I can tell you. As you know, this tournament's purpose is to draw attention to the dojo on its grand debut. As such, all funding that is made from tickets and such gets factored into the cash reward. This dojo is funded by the Federation of Explorers, so naturally there's no reason to worry about money. After today, the Dino's services will be free." Esuna explained.

"Wait a minute. People had to pay to watch? I didn't notice that." Austin pointed out. He was right about one thing. I didn't notice it either.

"Oh, well you must've really looked like an exploration team upfront then. They just assume that all exploration teams will enter, so they don't bother asking for money. In fact, it's more of a fund raiser, so buying a ticket isn't really required. It's just contribution towards the prize money." Esuna explained.

"Oh yeah. We met Marowak immediately when we entered and he asked for our badges so he could register us." I thought out loud. Esuna nodded.

"Then that must be it. Marowak is a bit hasty at times... Anyway, besides the cash award, there are two special prizes that are given out from this tournament. They're both extremely rare. One of the prizes is a lifetime pass to one of the most popular but secluded tourist spots on this continent. It's called Sky Peak." I couldn't help but get excited at the mentioning of that place. I had heard of it, but I never could've dreamed of going. Sky Peak is really exclusive in order to maintain the peaceful state of the village at its base. You can't even climb the mountain without an escort, especially considering how high up it is. It's the highest peak on this continent.

Esuna seemed to notice my excited look and smiled. "And then there's the second prize. It's called a frozen rock. Now don't get it confused with any ordinary rock that's been wet and put in a freezer to freeze. This particular rock is special. It's actually part of a group of items used for evolution, specifically for eevee." Esuna focused her attention on me for a second. "It's the evolutionary item required for the pokemon, glaceon."

"A glaceon? You mean this rock can make an eevee evolve into a glaceon?" I asked Esuna. She nodded. "Hmm... Well I don't particularly want to evolve, but I don't know about Luke or Eve... It'd certainly be something to look into though. And of course the pass to Sky Peak is of interest." Esuna just laughed.

I turned my attention towards the field for a minute before Marowak announced it was time for the next match. "Heh. Well I guess I'll see you guys later then." I said back to Austin and Esuna before I jumped over the railing and landed gracefully inside the Arena.

Not a second later, Flint walked down the stairs and across the field from me.

"And now folks it's time for our second battle in the second round of our quarter finals! Here on my left we have the co-founder of Team Eviolite, Miss Allyson!" Came Marowak's announcement. "And on the left we have Flint, the last member standing out of a team consisting of himself, Mari and Thomas. Good luck to you both! You may...be-gin!"

Just as Marowak said the word, Flint came barreling at me and bashed into me with Flame Wheel...or at least that's what he thought. Upon his closer inspection, after recovering from crashing into a wall, I had used double team to fool him. What he didn't know was that I had combined it with Dig and had locked on to his location.

While underground, I prepared Iron Tail and started digging upwards rapidly. At some point I had begun to spin, which added to my speed as I approached the surface. Once I surfaced, I slammed directly into Flint from underneath, sending him flying upwards. Once we had both flown as high as we could go, I flipped around and slammed my hardened tail straight into his face, sending him flying downwards and slamming him into the ground with a sickening 'thud'. I landed gracefully seconds later.

I didn't really have time to think as I instinctively ducked under a steady stream of fire. Before the Flamethrower ended, I heard Flint advancing on me quickly. I rolled out from under the Flamethrower, jumped up into the air and slammed down hard on him...too bad he was using Flame Wheel.

"Aagh!" I shouted as my tail was burned. The fact that it was still made of iron didn't help either. I quickly rebounded off of him and landed awkwardly a couple feet away. Ugh. Man, he's really going all out. Ok then, so should I.

I shot forward at top speed, painfully readying another iron tail. When I was close enough to Flint, I jumped up slightly and started spinning horizontally at a rapid rate. By this time, he had stopped his Flame Wheel, so he wasn't ready when I collided with him, hitting him repetitive and throwing him out of the arena.

I spun to a sliding stop just as Marowak's voice rung out over the arena. "Wow! And with some sort of spinning Iron Tail technique, Flint is out of the arena and Ally wins the match!"

With that, the crowd cheered and I walked out of the arena.

* * *

 

**_ 5:30pm, Main Floor, Alex's POV: _ **

After watching Ally's battle, I decided to immediately head up to the main floor to wait for my battle. According to the roster I was battling Craig, and after seeing what he did to Conor I better not take him lightly.

I didn't have much time to think about the battle since I was called down to the arena shortly after I went up the stairs. Craig walked down the stairs and over to the other side of the arena shortly after.

Judging from how flared up the flame which represented his tail was, I assumed he wasn't gonna hold back in the slightest. In fact, I'd say his entire fighting style is highlighted by extremely violent attacks.

"Heelooo~ everybody! It's time for our third match of this round! Here on my left we have Alex of Team Eviolite! And here on my right we have Craig Yuso! Both have made impressive feats in the previous rounds, so let's see what they can do here! Now begin!"

Craig immediately punched the ground, sending cracks spreading out all over the arena. I didn't exactly get what the point of that was, but I made my move next. I dashed forward, closing the gap between him and myself, before I attempted to slam into him with the flat of my hand. A massive shockwave ensued however when his fist bet with my hand, perfectly matching it in force.

Before I could react, his other fist became alit with fire and he slammed it straight into my face, sending me skidding along the ground halfway across the arena. I pushed myself to my feet while holding my hand to my face in pain. Guess I shouldn't have underestimated his speed. I removed my hand from my face just in time to jump over Craig's Flame Charge. That turned out to be a bad idea when he turned sharply and jumped into the air, charging up another fire punch and slamming in down on my side.

I flew straight down and crashed into the ground sickeningly. I just barely rolled out of the way of Craig's Flamethrower, getting burned in the side in the process.

"Ugh, ow!" I stumbled to my feet with my hand to my side. No wonder Connor had trouble against him.

Craig landed perfectly a couple feet away. Immediately after landing, he punched his fists together and suddenly his entire body became alit with flames. I readied an energy ball and launched it towards him, though when it was about to strike him, it dissipated.

"Looks like my ranged attacks won't work." I thought out loud before I jumped into the air, and Iron Tail readied. When I came down, I slammed straight down on his head without regard to the heat of the flames. He hit the ground with a 'thud' as I rebounded off of him and landed back where I had started.

He gave out an angry grunt before pushing himself to his feet and glaring at me. Then, without warning, he thrust both of his fists down and an eruption of blue flames spread out from him, completely engulfing me and the entire arena.

When the flames cleared, I was left face-down on the floor, badly burnt all over and barely conscious.

"Face me again when you can actually put up a fight. You're just as bad as that Oshawott friend of yours. A week little explorer who doesn't know when to quit. Now faint!" He yelled as he tried to kick me while I was down. I grabbed his leg and stopped it before he could strike me and I struggled to find my footing.

"You insolent fool!" I shouted furiously as I flipped him over my head by his leg and slammed him hard face-down into the ground before collapsing unconscious.

* * *

 

**_ Main Floor, Eve's POV: _ **

I gasped at what I had just seen before me. That Craig had just done it again. "Alex!" I shouted as I rushed down the stairs to the arena. I honestly couldn't control myself at the moment.

When I saw Craig get up, I rushed forward and slammed the flat of my paw straight into his face. "You! You idiot!" I shouted as my paw made contact with his face. He went flying back and hit the wall, making it spread widely with cracks. I was about to close in on him and attack him again, but Austin and Ally showed up and held me back.

"Ugh! Let me go! I'm gonna make him pay! You can't do that to Alex! Bring it on! I'll kick your sorry butt right now!" I shouted uncontrollably as I struggled to get out of Austin and Ally's grip. Craig had already been declared the winner and I knew this could probably get me disqualified, but I didn't care at the moment.

"You! You can't...you can't do that..." I collapsed onto the floor in tears as Craig walked past us.

"I've already told you. You can't be mad at me because you don't agree with my fighting style. If you can't deal with it, that's on you, but if you want to get back at me, don't disgrace yourself by acting on impulse. Defeat me in battle and prove you know better, or don't say anything at all. I honestly don't care, but what you've just done is an almost intolerable act of weakness. I honestly can't stand people like you!" He criticized as he walked by.

I ran up to Alex and looked him over. His whole body was covered in bruises and burns. He looked terrible.

Just then, the medical staff came and took him away on a stretcher.

"Rrrgh! He's going down!" I muttered to myself as Austin, Ally and myself made our way down to the contestant floor.

* * *

 

**_ 1 hour later, Contestant Floor, Ally's POV: _ **

I had never seen Eve so angry. In fact, she was so angry that she practically blew through her second round battle just to have a chance to get back at Craig. In any case, it looks like the only ones left in this competition are Austin, Eve, Craig and myself.

"So it looks like no matter how things turn out, one of the three of us has to go against the other." Austin summed up as he walked over to me. I smiled at him.

"Heh, guess you're right about that. Though if we're supposed to go against each other, you better not hold back, because I won't." I smirked at him.

He just laughed. "Hold back? Pfft, you wish. You'll have to fight with all you've got out there if you want to beat me. That is, if you can." He said while pointing at the screens. Sure enough, they displayed both of our pictures on them.

"Well then. Let's just go see which of us is stronger." I said to him with a wink as he followed me up the stairs and to the arena.

* * *

 

**_ 6:30pm, Marowak's Dojo Arena: _ **

"Heeello everyone! It's time for the semi-finals! This time it looks like we have an extremely special battle in store for you! With a co-founder of Team Eviolite on either side of the field, this is sure to be a battle of epic proportions! Now, if both sides are ready, you may begin!"

"Hope you're ready!" I shouted over at Austin before I shot off with quick attack. He did the same and we met at the center of the field with a clash of Iron tail and Focus Punch. I quickly rebounded off of his attack and dug underground just as he followed up with thunder punch, the momentum of the punch causing him to flip over and land on his stomach long enough for me to plow into him from underneath.

He flew straight up into the air, but just as I thought I had him, he flipped around and punched downwards, sending a huge amount of electricity flying down at me. When the attack hit me, the impact of it sent me flying back down into the hole that I had previously come out of.

I shook my head to clear out the shock of the impact and climbed out of the hole to see that Austin had also had a bit of trouble with landing. He pushed himself to his feet just as I climbed out of the hole.

Austin started charging up an electro ball, so I decided to start charging up a shadow ball. We both fired our attacks at the same time and I shot of immediately following the explosion that ensued. I couldn't quite see with all of the dust that had been kicked up, nor did I want to breathe it in, so I decided to just keep running forward and slam into him with quick attack.

At some point as I was running, I heard a loud grunt and decided to flip around and slam my tail into what I had hit. I heard a crack some distance away just before the dust cleared and Austin started struggling to get up.

A burning smell got my attention as I was looking at him. I sniffed at the air for a second before my eyes grew wide and I dived out of the way just as a huge bolt of electricity shot straight down from the ceiling and collided with the ground, cracking it slightly.

"Man, you really are going all out..." I muttered as I closed my eyes. When I opened them again, Austin was right in front of me, a Thunder Punch prepared.

I backflipped out of the way of his attack and landed upside-down on my forepaws just as he punched the air, causing him to loose his balance long enough for me to spring forward again and shove the flat of my paw into his stomach, sending him sliding back a bit. Then, after taking in a deep breath, I charged up a great deal of energy and fired a massive Moon Blast that ripped across the field and exploded across his chest, throwing him straight out of the arena and crashing him into one of the far walls of the building.

"Whelp, now I have to get that wall fixed. In any case, with the defeat of Austin, the leader of Team Eviolite, Miss Allyson is now declared the winner and will move on to the finals! Congratulations! Now can someone go help him up?" Marowak announced as I ran off to go help Austin.

* * *

 

**_ (1 hour later) 7:30pm, Marowak's Dojo Arena, Eve's POV: _ **

"Alright everybody! Now it's time to get on to our last match before the finals of this competition! On my right we have Miss Evening of Team Eviolite, and on my left we have Craig Yuso! I don't expect this battle to be any less exciting than the last, so let's get it started! You may begin!"

At the sound of the word 'begin', I shot straight off with quick attack to close in on him, and, when I was within striking distance of him, I jumped into the air and slammed the flat of my paw into him. He had tried to meet my attack which his own punch, but the impact my paw made immediately overpowered him and he was sent packing into the wall. I was surprised when I saw the immense shock wave that had been emitted from my paw after it had hit him, but I shook it off when he fired a Flamethrower in my direction.

I jumped out of the way of the huge fire stream and shot of towards a wall. Craig noticed this and began to chase after me, but I jumped and backflipped off of the wall when I reached it, sending me flying over him slightly. When I was directly above him, I yet again slammed the flat of my paw against his head. I followed up with this strategy twice more, each time followed by a small tremor, before I flipped again and landed behind him, sliding to a stop and looking back.

To my surprise, a few seconds after he collapsed from the impact, an entire section of the floor caved in, forming the shape of a massive dent with a collection of huge cracks riddling the floor around it. He didn't get up again after that.

"Consider that proof." I said to him, not caring if he was conscious or not as I made my way over to the stairs to exit the arena.

I spotted Ally and Esuna talking over to my left, so I headed over in their direction.

"Hello my opponent. You seem satisfied." Ally greeted as I walked over.

I smiled and jumped up slightly in satisfaction. "Yep! Craig didn't know what hit him...come to think of it, neither did I... Where did that power come from?" I asked no one in particular. "Never mind. I got back at him and it was awesome! What more can I ask for?"

Ally smiled slyly. "So you're saying you wouldn't mind if I beat you and won the tournament myself?"

"Ha! Fat chance." I retorted. "Good luck fighting against me sis! I'm gonna be the best explorer around. I can't be defeated by my sister! Hehe."

"And where was all of that positivity back in Evolution Forest?" Ally laughed. "Alright, I won't hold back against you. Let's both get out there and give it our all, but don't be surprised if I beat you."

"Rrrgh! You're on!" I shouted at her just as Marowak called for us to come down to the arena.

* * *

 

**_ 8:00pm, Marowak's Dojo Arena: _ **

"And it is time for the finals! All of our competitors have fought to their full extent here tonight, and now we have narrowed it down to two! No matter who is the victor tonight, it's safe to say that family will prevail tonight because the twins of Team Eviolite are our two finalists! Let's hear it for Allyson and Evening!" Marowak shouted through his microphone as the entire crowd cheered.

"Now, if both sides are read, then let the final match begin!"

In an instant, both of us were at the center of the field. We both jumped at the same time, and there was an intense clash of Iron Tails that sent us both sliding backwards. Immediately following, we both charged up what looked to be equally powerful Shadow Balls and launched them, the ensuing explosion kicking up quite a bit of dust, but not enough to jeopardize Ally's health.

I decided to charge straight into the dust cloud to catch her off guard, thinking that she would be a bit hesitant to do the same, but I was apparently wrong. We collided head on and bounced off of each other painfully as the dust cleared.

I gripped my head with my paw as I pushed myself to my feet. "Man, being twins is a pain sometimes." I said to myself as I ran diagonally towards a wall and jumped off of it. Ally did the same, but instead of jumping off of the wall, she jumped straight up towards me.

I took that little change in strategy as my chance to act. I flipped around in the air as she approached and slammed her down hard with an Iron Tail. Her impact with the ground didn't create a dent in the floor like last time, but it still looked pretty painful nonetheless.

When I landed, I immediately charged up and fired a shadow ball which, after colliding with her, sent her skidding along the ground. Before she could stop, she flipped backwards and landed on her feet.

After landing, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them, her eyes were the same color as mine. Predictable, hehehe.

She charged up a ball of pink energy and fired it at me. As soon as it approached me, I jumped and hit it back at her with my tail. The Moon Blast collided with her and shot her straight into the wall. When she slid down from it, she was unconscious.

"Hehe! Never forget about our technique!" I said to her before I pumped my paw into the air.

"That's it! With the back-fire of Ally's Moon Blast attack, she is now unable to battle and that means that our winner is Eve of Team Eviolite! Congratulations!" Marowak congratulated as the entire crowd cheered.

* * *

 

**_ 8:30pm, Outside Dojo, Eve's POV: _ **

Turns out they had set up a winners platform just outside the dojo where they held the champion ceremony. There was a spot for first, second and third place. Apparently, third place was determined by who was able to stay in their semi-final battle the longest without getting knocked out. Between Austin and Craig, third place went to Austin, second place went to Ally, and I got first. I however didn't know what I was gonna do with the frozen rock. I had never considered evolving before, and if I did want to my first choice would likely be sylveon, but...I don't know. The lifetime pass to Sky Peak was cool though. Ally sure liked it.

"And to our Champion, we present these two rare awards as well as the 20,000 poké that was collected from the optional tickets generously bought by our audience! Congratulations Eve and thanks to all of you who participated. I hope you all will come here and train sometime!" Marowak thanked all of the participants.

Then, as a group, we met up, stored the pass and the frozen rock in storage, saved our money, and left for home.

* * *

 

_ **But even among the glory of a fair fight and the fun of competition, those who win often enjoy the greatest of satisfaction. I guess there is a bit of fun in such an act...** _

* * *

 


	7. Daybreak!

 

* * *

_**"Adventurous spirits and curiosity are our most powerful tools. Without which nothing would ever exist..."** _

* * *

**Grace Family House. Austin's POV:**

As the early morning's light filtered in through the window of our room, my ear twitched, waking me from my peaceful slumber. The sunlight wasn't what woke me up however. It seemed that a certain someone couldn't help but nuzzle me in her sleep.

I smiled at her cute form, careful not to move or do anything else to wake her up. I hadn't seen her look this peaceful in a while. There was just too much magical business going on I guess. It seems that yesterday's break was good for us after all. I frowned when she stirred, but returned to a smile when she opened her beautiful green eyes. "Good morning princess".

She looked up at me and smiled. "Princess huh? Does this mean my prince wants to give me a good morning kiss?" She joked, laughing lightly.

"Well, if you insist my lady." I laughed before pulling her into a passionate kiss. I put my arms around her and pulled her closer, enjoying every moment of the kiss. I was a bit reluctant when we had to separate, but we were in desperate need of air.

I laughed after a while of just laying there. "I can't believe we've been together for five months. It seems like such a short time, but it doesn't feel like it."

Ally smiled and nuzzled my face before getting up. "Hmm, yeah. It does seem like that doesn't it?" She asked rhetorically. "Well, we should probably head on down to the living room. According to my badge it's...umm, where exactly is my badge?"

I sat up and rubbed my one of my eyes in confusion before remembering something. "Oh yeah! Alex took all of our badges. He said he was gonna do something with them. Eve said he's smart, so maybe he's modifying them? I just hope it's ok with the Exploration Federation."

Surely enough, as soon as I finished that last sentence, Alex opened the door holding a couple of ring-like objects. He looked pretty tired.

"Oh good, you guys are awake." He smiled as he walked in. "You'll love this." He said as he showed us the said objects.

"Uhh, what're those?" I asked him, only to be laughed at. "Hey, what's so funny?"

"Heh, sorry. It's nothing. Anyway, these are our new badges, or at least the prototype. They fit on as wrist bands for one thing." He explained, pointing at their rather band-like shape. "Best thing about this is that I built in a system that basically locks it in place on your arm based on a highly magnetized plate I installed on the back. It's nearly impossible to take off unless you press the button on the back to release its grip."

He looked at me for a few seconds. "For Austin however, a magnet would likely interfere with his ability to use electric attacks, so I came up with something else for his badge." He explained before pressing a button on one of the rings. Suddenly five short blue bars of electrical energy connected the open ends of the object, completing the ring. "Since the badges are naturally attack proof, it wouldn't matter if your electricity flowed through it with this function. In fact, it would actually provide a boost to that 'Thunder Canon' trick you pulled yesterday at the tournament."

He proceeded to fit the ring on my right arm like you would normally with a wrist band. "The badge of course has all of its original functions, but I added some more. I improved the range of the communication function, it can now be used to store items (by the way, do not tell your parents I was tampering with the void), I fixed the annoyingly disorienting affect of the transportation function, and, well, you can just find out later."

Ally put hers on and looked at it awkwardly. "Umm, Alex? Are you sure that the federation is ok with this?"

He looked at us in confusion. "Hmm? The federation?" He thought for a moment before a look of realization hit him. "Oh yeah! I thought of that, but since these are pretty much owned by Wigglytuff himself, and the technology is of a different continent altogether, I'd say they'd have no problem with it. I didn't quite have time to finish all of ours last night, so the three of us and Eve are the only ones in the team that have them right now. I the rest their badges back for the time being."

I nodded. "Alright then, well like Ally said before you came in here, we should really head on down to the living room." They both nodded and we headed out.

In the living room, we saw Eve...reading a book?!

"Umm, Eve? What are you doing?" I asked her as I walked up.

"Huh?" She looked up from the book and blinked a couple of times. "Oh. This is another spell book. There's some pretty cool stuff in here."

Of course... "Let me see." Since most of the team wasn't ready yet, I figured I had time to look. Eve handed me the book and I flipped through a couple of pages. "Ok...this looks like it could help with our current situation." I smiled, seemingly confusing the others. I handed the book to Eve and grabbed the wand out of the void.

"Glaner." I pronounced while slinging the tip of the wand towards the center of the room. A multicolored light ran along the wand and shot forward, expanded, and suddenly the rest of the team appeared looking rather confused. "Well then, looks like everyone's ready after all." I said while tapping my foot in an annoyed manner. They all looked at me with nervous expressions.

"Ehehe. Sorry..." Flare said nervously before they walked over and joined us.

"Ok from now on, we all meet in here as soon as we get ready. No messing around. Got it?" I asked everyone. They all nodded in confirmation. I looked down at my badge. "Hmm, let's see..." I said curiously as I sapped the screen of the badge. A display of the original design of the badge pulled up and then a hologram projected out of the wristband-like accessory and appeared right in front of me.

"Hmm..." I sounded as I raised my hand and taped on an icon labeled "items". I proceeded to scroll through a list of items which we apparently had in storage, stopping at an apple and tapping it. Seconds later, the display shut off and and apple appeared above my hand, dropping down into it. "Ok... That's interesting..."

Alex nodded. "You can tell it not to shut off afterwards if you want to. It just makes it easier to catch the items." He explained.

"Alright then. Well the badge said it was 8:30 so we should probably go. We may not live in the guild but we haven't graduated yet. Chatot still has to give us our assignment." I said to the group before turning around and heading towards the door. I saw no point in waking Ella and Shard just to say goodbye for the day, so I figured we'd just leave right away.

"Heh. I wonder what he'll say now that Ally beat him!" Eve laughed behind me as we were leaving.

"Eh, who knows? He likely won't react to it. He might've earn some respect for you though." Ally commented. I had no idea what she was talking about, but decided to dismiss it as I stepped outside.

Outside it was quite different than it was compared to yesterday. The town seemed as lively as ever with residents and outside pokemon either shopping in the market, busying themselves with conversation or just enjoying the weather. It was pretty warm compared to how it had been since we had gotten here.

"Well this is the busiest I've ever seen the town in a while." Luke commented from behind me. We all looked at him in confusion. "Probably due to the tournament yesterday. Brought in a lot of people."

"Umm... Weren't you in seclusion all this time? How would you know?" Ally asked him. He burst out into laughter.

"What? Do you honestly think that our parents would keep me locked up in one place for ten years?" He asked rhetorically. "I was allowed to walk around town at times. I had an escort of course, but at least I was allowed to walk outside."

"Oh, well let's not just stand around. We've got work to do. Let's hurry and get to the guild. I don't know about you, but I'd rather not listen to Chatot rant on about how we're always late." Suddenly all of our eyes widened in shock as we stared at each other.

"We've gotta go now!" We all yelled at the same time as we sped off towards the guild.

* * *

**Wigglytuff's Guild:**

By the time we had gotten to the guild, the morning cheers were already over (which I wasn't too surprised with) and Chatot was waiting for us with Diglet by his side. When all of us set foot on the bottom floor, he took notice and hopped over to us. Luckily, he didn't seem to be bothered by us missing the assembly.

"Ahh Team Eviolite. It's nice to see you this morning." Chatot greeted. "I believe Diglet has a request for you."

"A request?" Eve asked, walking up to him. It wasn't too often that one member of the guild made a request of another member. At least, not that I've heard of...

"Precisely." Diglet answered. "You see...something's come up and I'm afraid that I will be unable to fulfill my duties as the guild's sentry this morning. I should be back in a couple of hours, but I'll need two of you to cover for me. It's not too hard, believe me. All ya really have to look out for is Loudred's annoyingly loud voice."

"I heard that!" Loudred shouted from a floor up. Eve smirked.

"Whatever Loudred!" Eve shouted equally as loud, surprising everyone. "...what?"

"...Ok then, well?" Diglet asked.

"Flare and I can do it. Alex can tell everyone else what they need to do so we can cover more ground, and Flare might need to take some time to rest after the tournament and the umm...injury." I shivered at the thought of that. "Plus, I think it'll be fun."

Eve laughed enthusiastically after that statement. "Hehe. We're the leaders today!" I just shook my head and sighed. Flare seemed a bit grateful for whatever reason at least.

"Oh...ok then, well that's great. Thank you Austin. Normally I'd have Loudred explain the job, but I think it'd be easier if Chatot just did it. I'll see ya." Diglet said before digging underground.

After he left, Chatot began explaining sentry duty to Flare and I and everyone else left up the ladder.

* * *

**Alex's POV:**

"Alright Drew and Connor. You guys should take up a couple of short missions from the boards. Shouldn't be much of a problem for you guys should it?"

"Heh, problem? Look who you're talking to. There's no dungeon pokemon that can beat me." Connor said with slight arrogance as he puffed out his chest.

"Says the guy who once got outrun and knocked out by a caterpie..." Drew commented, earning an angry glare from Connor.

The rest of us just laughed. "Well you guys get to it then. We're gonna go back down and see Wigglytuff. See if there's anything else we can do."

"I don't think that'll be necessary." The voice of Chatot spoke up behind me. I turned to face him, confusion written all over my face. "The guildmaster has given another assignment for you since you're a rather, well, large team and you can do much more than our other recruits here. He has requested that you investigate a certain waterfall that's peaked his interest." Eve's eyes lit up at the word "investigate".

"I'm assuming that you four will do it?" He asked, referring to me, Ally, Eve and Luke.

"Of course we will!" Eve whole-heartedly agreed, excitement quickly getting the better of her as she practically jumped up and down. "Where is it?!" She insisted. She was so enthusiastic that Chatot, even with his businessman-like composure, had to take a step back in astonishment.

Chatot took a moment to regain his composure and clear his throat. "Very well. You can find the waterfall not too far north-east of Treasure Town." He affirmed. "Now listen up. This isn't some ordinary mission. Wigglytuff has expressed significant interest on the topic of this waterfall, so it would be wise that you not goof off. Exploring and investigating are the basis of most professional teams, so you might want to consider this important experience." He seemed to notice that Eve hadn't been paying much attention, much to his own annoyance. "That includes you Eve! No drifting off into your own world!"

Chatot's scolding seemed to snap her out of her dream-like state. "Huh? What-yeah! Don't goof off, professional teams, good experience. All awesome things. Got it." She added in quickly. It was surprising that she had caught any of that.

Chatot sighed. "Miss Grace. You do know that you have to be considerably aware to ever hope to be a great explorer, right?" He asked her doubtfully. I didn't quite understand where he had learned her last name, but no one seemed to think it was unusual.

"Huh? Oh, yeah! Sure! Let's go get ready for the exploration guys!" Eve expressed excitedly, seemingly ignoring Chatot as she zipped off up the ladder and out of the guild with considerable speed.

"Eve, wait! Don't run off by yourself! Who knows where you're going?!" Ally shouted after her sister as she ran off with Luke in tow.

I was about to leave as well when I heard Chatot sigh yet again. "I don't know how that girl hopes to become a top-notch explorer when she can't even pay attention to something as simple as advice." I smiled at that comment.

"Eh, I don't know if much'll change about her later on or not, but I have a feeling she'll make it. Ya certainly don't come by passion and determination like hers very often, and besides. It's not like no one's watching her." I replied before making my way over to the ladder.

"Yeah. She does seem to have that going for her doesn't she?" I heard him say with an amused laugh before I left the building.

* * *

Luckily Ally had been able to stop Eve at the crossroads before she could run off to who knows where. We didn't need much preparation considering we hadn't gone on a mission yesterday and Austin had picked up a few things from storage last night before we left for the Grace house. The last thing we needed was to look around for Eve and risk being late to report our findings on the waterfall to Wigglytuff.

"Alright Eve, you calmed down now?" I asked her whilst patting her on the head. The action seemed to annoy her as she gave me an angry look and pushed my hand away.

"Ugh, hey! Don't do that. I'm calm, I promise." She complained. I cracked a smile and laughed at her naturally silly behavior. Just the thought of this newly revealed side of her was enough to brighten my mood.

"Heh, sorry. Couldn't help it I guess. I can only assume I used to do that with pokemon when I was a human." I guessed. "In any case, we should start heading towards the waterfall. It'll probably take us some time to investigate considering it's our first exploration mission and even Ally is new to the idea." I suggested, taking the lead as we left from the crossroads. At least our badges had a compass installed in them in case we got lost. Luckily I hadn't messed it up in the process of modification considering three of us had the new prototypes and Luke's was technically a book.

"Ok Alex, which way is north-east?!" Eve asked, standing up on her hind legs so she could lean on me and stare me down impatiently. Her overexcited behavior seemed to be slightly annoying the others by now, but I found it amusing. I was pretty sure she had what was called ADHD.

Not wanting to disappoint her I immediately started surveying the area and pointed in a specified direction. "That's the way." I declared, contributing to much confusion from my teammates.

Ally looked at her badge and then back up at me. "You're not gonna use the compass?" When I shook my head at the question, she activated her 'wrist-badge' (gotta think of a name for it) and checked for herself. Sure enough, the direction I had pointed was north-east. "Wow. Nice sense of direction." She complemented.

"Thanks I guess..." I thanked her as I stared in the direction I had pointed. How did I know that?

I was snapped out of my thoughts when Eve nudged my shoulder and pushed me forward slightly. "Come on, come on. Let's go already." She urged impatiently before running ahead. Knowing she'd likely get lost if she ran ahead like that, I moved to do the same, the others closely following behind as we made our way over to the waterfall.

* * *

**10:30am, The Waterfall:**

After about an hour of walking, we arrived to witness the sight of a massive waterfall with water that rushed down with such a speed that it almost seemed as if it would crush anyone who foolishly fell below its currents. The water ran off in huge quantities along either side of the path that ended in a sort of ledge, seemingly shaped after years of erosion by the water's current. Ally, Eve, Luke and I just stood there for a few minutes to take in the intensity of the scene taking place before our eyes. Finally, with a great deal of enthusiasm (and some slight anxiety for some yet unknown reason), Eve spoke up.

"Great! This looks awesome! So... Now what?" Eve asked as she walked a bit closer to the waterfall to observe. "Hmm..."

I realized what she was going to do a bit too late as curiosity got the better of her. "Wait, Eve! Don't touch the water!" Of course she did, and was thrown back violently as if she had hit some sort of physically reflective barrier. I almost instinctively dived to the side and caught her before she could hit the ground.

I looked up to see her holding her paw in a bit of pain. "Ugh. It's a cool waterfall. The water sure hurts though..." She smiled down at me gratefully. "Thanks Alex." She got up and her expression changed so suddenly that it shocked me. "Though I suppose you wouldn't like to see me dirty would you." She said slyly with a wink before walking back over to the waterfall.

Aww man, not this again... I suppose it was a fun aspect of her personality though. "Hey Eve, there's something I don't quite understand about this waterfall." I seemed to recapture her attention with the comment as she turned to me, an inquisitive look on her face.

"What is there to understand?" She asked. "It's a waterfall. Is there something weird about it?!" Oddly, she seemed to get more excited just by the possibility of an abnormality about the structure of the waterfall.

"Well this does appear to be an ordinary waterfall doesn't it? And anyone who came here would naturally dismiss it as such..." I started, walking close enough to the waterfall to observe without getting thrown back by its intense currents. "But." I began surveying the ridge around me. The bit of ground we were standing on had indeed been eroded by the water's quite swift currents, noting its irregular shape at the edges, and seemingly it had done the same on the front and underside of the ledge. "Judging from how the erosion of the ground looks and how fast the water falls, I'd say that this ledge used to be a path leading to somewhere behind the water before it ever began to flow. The fact that we can't even touch the falling water without being shot back means that there is a very powerful force behind it, and it's likely that when the water did start flowing, its impact on the 'alleged' path was so great that it sliced, or rather eroded, straight through it and created the ridge we're standing on today. As to the origins of the water, that remains a mystery. Many things can cause a waterfall to form. Even a mystery dungeon I suppose..." I finished, satisfied with my conclusion.

Eve marveled at my deduction, but seemed pretty confused at how I had arrived at it. I was pretty sure she didn't exactly know what 'erosion' meant. Ally on the other hand seemed to get what I was talking about. I wasn't too sure about Luke however. He didn't look like he had been paying attention.

"So you think the water cut the path?!" Eve asked me, pretty much summing up my conclusion in her own words. I nodded to her and her eyes grew a look of pure admiration. "So cool! How do you figure this stuff out?"

I laughed sheepishly. "Well to be honestly Eve, it's really nothing but an educated guess." I explained, but her look of admiration didn't cease. "Eheheh. Well regardless, we should really test my theory."

Eve's admiring look immediately disappeared, replaced by one of worry. "Huh? But how are we gonna do that without jumping into the waterfall? What if there isn't anything behind there and you get crushed by the water? You should make Luke go."

"What?! You're worried about him but not you're own brother?!" Luke shouted at her comically.

"What? Alex isn't a wizard. You are so you can just pull one of your fancy spells in case you almost get flattened like a pancake under the water. It's only fair." Eve reasoned.

"What? Fair?! You and Ally are wizards too!" Luke and Eve continued to argue back and forth like that for a while before I finally split them up.

I sighed, trying to think of where to continue. "Like I was saying, we should test my theory. I have a great idea of how we can do it too. Remember how I had that vision about Azuril and Drowsie?"

"Yeah, you nearly collapsed on top of Austin and made Eve scream all girly." Ally laughed, earning a jab in the side by Eve.

I had to suppress a laugh myself. "Well regardless of who screamed, I realized that both instances where I witnessed a vision, even the one where I just heard Azuril's scream, happened when I touched something. Therefore, I should let myself get thrown back by this waterfall and see what happens. One of you catch me if it happens." Knowing that Eve would have some interjections to this, I quickly ran over to the waterfall and touched it.

"Exactly how are we supposed to catch you? We're all quadrupeds." Luke shouted at me as I was thrown back. The landing wasn't too comfortable, but I picked myself up all the same.

"Eh, you'll think of something. Create a cloud pillow or something." I answered before holding my head with my hand. "Hey. Those aren't easy to create ya'know. Alex?" He asked, concerned before a line split my vision and I blacked out.

In my vision, I saw someone, a bit of a round figure, throw an apple at the waterfall, only to have it snap back rapidly and hit the figure in what I assumed was the face, knocking it down. The figure then rose, picked up the apple, ran straight at the waterfall, and jumped into the falling water like it was nothing. Then, on the other side of the water, I saw a cave. The figure tumbled straight into the cave, looked around in slight bewilderment, and continued exploring.

I woke up from my vision with a sharp, unwelcome pain in my head. Apparently, Luke had failed to provide provisions for me to land on...or so I thought. I got up and quickly shot him an angry glare. "Luke! I told you to create a cloud pillow for me to land on!"

"I did! It's not my fault you fell the opposite direction that I placed it in. Who faints forwards anyway?!" He complained. I just sighed.

"Apparently me. Anyway, it appears that I was correct. I saw someone jump into the waterfall and there was a cave on the other side. We just need to build up enough momentum." I explained, motioning them to follow me to the beginning of the jagged path.

"Umm, A-Alex. A-are you s-sure about this?" Eve stuttered nervously. I patted her on the head to comfort her.

"Just trust me. It'll be fine. Just make sure to run fast enough to make it through." Eve nodded and faced the waterfall with a look of pure determination on her face.

"Waterfall you're going down!" She shouted before shooting off like a rocket into the water.

"Umm...ok?" Ally looked incredibly bewildered by her sister's actions. "You gotta tell me how you get her to do this stuff." She shook her head as she reared back and charged at the waterfall, subsequently jumping into it. Luke and I soon followed.

* * *

**11:30am, Waterfall cave, Ally's POV:**

Turns out Alex was correct. When I passed through the water, I tumbled straight into a cave like structure and came to a soaking wet stop. "Wow. This sure beats rescue work."

I stood up and looked around to see if I could spot Eve, only to come up with nothing. I started to panic a little. "Eve?!" I shouted in a frightened voice. "Eve?!" Suddenly, Alex and Luke crashed through the water and landed in a similar fashion near me. I quickly got their attention. "Alex, Luke. I can't find Eve!"

All of a sudden, Eve came running out from further down in the cave. I let out a relieved sigh, running up to her and tackling her in a death hug. "What were you thinking?! Don't run ahead like that! You scared the heck out of me!"

A guilty expression made its way onto Eve's face. "Oh, sorry! I didn't think about it... I'm fine though! Honest! Don't particularly like the wet fur though..." She apologized.

I sighed and got off of her. "It's fine I suppose. So are we gonna explore this place or what?"

"Oh yeah! Let's go guys! Hurry up!" Eve shouted excitedly, hurrying the other two along. "Hahaha! I can't believe we actually figured it out!"

As it turns out the the cave was actually a mystery dungeon. The dungeons residents consisted of tangella, whooper, lotad, grimer, barboach, psyduck, surskit, poliwag and whiscash. There were pools of water all over the place where enemy pokemon could wait to jump out at us at any moment. A couple of them did, but Eve was so excited that she simply batted them away with her tail and they were nonetheless deterred from fighting.

"So, are you gonna use that stone that you won at the tournament to evolve?" I asked Eve while walking alongside her. Sometime along the trip through the dungeon, we had come across a dry spell in enemy pokemon, so I decided it was safe enough for a little conversation.

Eve seemed to think the idea over for a bit. "Umm... I'm not sure really. I kinda want to evolve into a sylveon like mom, but then again she said that takes magic... I guess glaceon is kinda cool. Dad obviously thought so... I just worry that Alex would be cold-" Eve immediately slapped a paw over her mouth.

I laughed at her oh so obvious crush on him. I decided that it was time to tease her a bit as I fake grasped. "You mean you worry you'll make him cold when you're cuddling with him?~" I teased slyly.

Eve looked at me with an annoyed expression. "Hey! Quiet, he can hear you!" She complained. "Besides, I'm starting to worry a bit about that too. I'm too scared to admit these kinds of things..."

I was really struggling to keep the fact that Alex liked her back a secret. "Well, find a way to do it. You're pretty creative. Also, I've seen you flirting with him. It shouldn't be too hard to bring it the extra mile if you find the right time to do it."

"But...what if he...I don't know. I've been trying to get him to like me and confess. I even sent him a secret admirer note. I don't know what else to do. I love him Ally..."

I sighed and looked over at Alex, and then back over at Eve. "I know... You'll be fine. Just trust me, ok? Keep doing what you've been doing." Eve nodded. The conversation ended there as we were swarmed by enemies. I quickly reached for Eve's paw and she reached for mine. "Twin time!" We shouted at the same time as we prepared for our 'twin strategy'. "You two move out of the way." I warned Alex and Luke. They both backed away as I started to prepare a Moon Blast. Luckily, all of the enemies were in front of us, so all we had to do was build up enough energy in the attack and send it flying at them.

Once the pink ball formed, I signaled for Eve to get ready. "You ready?" Eve asked me. I nodded and Eve took off. I launched the Moon Blast straight towards her and took off on a straight path across from hers. Once the attack reached her, she jumped up and hit it with an iron tail, the energy from the attack making it grow slightly. I did the same as it came near me. We continued this process ten more times before I slid under the attack and hit it straight up. When it fell down, Eve and I jumped up and hit it at the same time, sending it crashing into the unsuspecting (or rather confused) swarm of pokemon. There was an intense flash, and when it cleared, all of the pokemon where out cold which scorch marks on their bodies. Their was a massive scorch mark along the ground between them.

Alex whistled and walked up to us. "Man. You girls should patent that technique. That Moon Blast is so unstable after receiving all of that transferred energy that it can literally leave a mark."

Eve and I smiled before giving each other a quick high-three. "Let's keep going shall we?" I asked the group. All three off them agreed and we continued our trek through the damp dungeon, leaving behind twenty or so enemy pokemon in the process.

* * *

**Half an hour later:**

The floors seemed to pass by fairly quickly, and before we knew it we were on the last floor staring down the stairs...or at least that's what Alex's new model of the badge indicated. He had apparently out in a feature that detailed exactly how many floors were in a dungeon once a new one was discovered. It could catalogue them and store them to be used as a data base for future reference as well. Pretty nifty I'd say." Of course, Eve decided to immediately dash down the stairs, so the 'badge' or whatever Alex would eventually call it started beeping rapidly and teleported each of us out of the dungeon and to the end of the cave.

Poor Luke still had to deal with the disorienting effects of the old guild badge as he swayed back and forth while holding his head with one paw. Eve was currently fascinated in the immense amount of gemstones that we had found at the back wall of the cave. We had decided to pick up a few decently sized ones of each color, which we immediately placed inside our bags, but then Eve saw the biggest gem in the room and was immediately entranced by it. Alex sat next to her and observed it, seemingly trying to figure out how such a giant gem had formed. Luke seemed to be staring off into space in another direction, or at least I thought he was.

"So, Eve. Exactly how long are you gonna stare at that thing before you decide to do something with it?" I asked her, starting to walk towards it myself. She seemed to snap out of her trance as she blinked a couple of times and turned to me.

"Huh? Oh yeah! We gotta get it out of the wall! Let me try!" She said excitedly as she ran up to it and steadied herself on her hind legs. She proceeded to pull with all the strength she had, but slipped after it failed to budge and tumbled backwards into Alex. "Heh. Maybe you should try it." She suggested to Alex.

"Sure thing Eve." He smiled as he walked up to the gem the same as Eve did and proceeded to pull on it. No matter how hard he tugged on it however, he ended up with the same result as Eve. He backed away after a few more seconds and walked back to Eve. "Sorry Eve. It won't budge." He apologized.

"Well we can't give up yet! I'm gonna try again!" Eve said in a determined fashion as she ran back up to the gem and began to tug on it.

About five seconds later, I heard a quite loud 'thud' and turned around to find that Alex had collapsed on the floor again. "Luke! That's it, you are fired from Alex catching duty!" I scolded him.

"Hey! How many times do I have to say it's not my fault?! This time he fell backwards! What's up with this guy and falling?! I mean seriously!" He complained, just as Alex came to with a slightly anxious look on his face.

"Is Eve still tugging on the gem?!" He asked me as he collected himself.

"Umm... Yeah. Why?" I asked him, a bit confused about the question and his worried expression.

He immediately jumped up and held his hand out towards Eve. "Eve, whatever you do, don't-" He began before Eve accidentally bumped into the gem, pushing it into the wall slightly. A click was heard shortly after. "Push that gem..." As soon as he finished his sentence, the room began to shake violently.

I covered my ears and laid down on the floor with my face to the ground shivering. The sensation felt too much like an earthquake for me to bare. "Austin..." I muttered softly before I heard a rushing sound, forcing me to look up. What I saw shocked me even more than an earthquake. The entire right tunnel had been filled with water that was now rushing at us as fast as the waterfall's water had been falling at the entrance to the cave.

"What is this? Indiana Jones?!" Alex shouted, causing the three of us to look at him funny. We didn't have much time for that as we were quickly swept away by the current. I lost consciousness as soon as the water hit me.

* * *

**1:00pm, The Hot Spring:**

I regained consciousness...or at least I thought I did. Everything was warm and wet, and I was floating. Only later when I opened my eyes did I realize that I was actually floating in a pool of warm-hot water. "A hot spring?!" I shouted in surprise as I attempted to right myself, failing a couple of times before finally succeeding at touching the bottom of the shallow pool with my feet.

"Nhh. That's right young one. You've landed at a hot spring. Feels nice don't it." Said some unknown voice with a somewhat dry laugh. The voice seemed a bit elderly. I turned to my left to see a torkoal standing on the edge of the hot spring, yet not in the water. "Let me ask you something youngster. Where did you come from?" After looking around a bit, he seemed to get the picture. "Figured so. You're lost." He laughed a bit. "After all, not too many land folk come flying in here from the sky."

"Umm, who are you if you don't mind me asking?" I asked the torkoal, who just smiled warmly in response.

"I'm Torkoal, the elder of Treasure Town. Nice to meet you youngster. Now what might your name be? And are those three your friends?" He asked.

I looked around me. To my relief, like he said Alex, Eve and Luke were floating right beside me. "Oh sorry. My name's Ally. These three are my friends. The two eevee here are my brother and sister, Eve and Luke. The snivy is our friend Alex. We're members of Team Eviolite. Somehow we ended up here after getting into some trouble with a massive water trap in a waterfall cave. You mentioned that we dropped out of the sky right?"

"My goodness. The water shot you all the way here. Seems to me like luck's on your side." He remarked.

Eve suddenly woke up with a dramatic gasp. "Oh my Arceus that was awesome!" Her shout seemed to rouse the others.

"You didn't black out when it shot us into the sky?" I inquired. She nodded.

"Nope. I fainted when I fell into this water. You should've seen it though. I could see the guild from that height. It was so awesome! Oh hey who's this old guy?" She asked bluntly, earning a jab in the side from me.

"Don't be rude! This is Torkoal. He's the elder of Treasure Town. Torkoal, like I said this is Eve, that's Alex, and that's...Luke? Where'd he go?" I asked out loud as I looked for him.

"Well you youngsters be sure to enjoy the hot spring before heading back to your guild, and if you have any questions for me, feel free to ask. Knowledge is about the only thing I have left to contribute to you folk nowadays." He laughed before closing his eyes and relaxing on the warm rocks.

"Ooh, hey Ally. I see Luke. Hehe." Eve laughed as she pointed in his direction. I was a bit surprised when I saw Esuna here. I almost laughed myself when I saw how Luke was staring at her.

"I'll be right back." I said to Eve before walking over to Luke. "You don't have much experience with girls do you?" I asked him when I got over there, making him jump slightly.

"Huh?! What?! Oh, hey Ally. I'm just-"

"Looking hopelessly infatuated with a girl? I know..." I 'finished' for him, making him blush a bit. "You want my help or not?" I asked him.

He looked at me surprised. "W-what! Umm...well yes, but-"

"Then get on over there and talk to her." I said as I pushed him over towards her, a bit too hard considering as soon as I did so, he went tumbling out of the water and slammed into her. "Oops..."

* * *

**Luke's POV:**

As soon as Ally pushed me, I flew out of the water and crashed right into "Her". Collecting myself, I realized I was on top of her and immediately scrambled to get off. "S-s-sorry!" I apologized, but oddly she seemed to be laughing.

"Heheh. That's ok. Clumsy I see?" She said through slight laughter as she smiled at me. I couldn't help but blush at that smile of hers. I seemed to have zoned out as well. "Hey. Are you ok?"

I quickly snapped out of it. "Huh?! O-oh, umm...yeah. Yeah, umm. I'm fine. Great! I'm great. Not a problem!" I rambled, only adding to my embarrassment. She seemed to find enjoyment in it though.

"Heh. Hey. You sure you're alright? Ya didn't hit your head before ramming into me did ya?" I nodded just to avoid further embarrassment. "Ok then, well I'm Esuna. You are?"

"Hmm? Oh! My name, right! My name is...Luke! Yeah, Luke. Eheheh." Esuna just seemed to smile and laugh at every think I messed up on. I didn't get it. What was so funny?

"Ok. Well hello Luke. Wait a minute... You're Ally and Eve's brother aren't you? Maybe I should get them to come over here and talk with us. I don't particularly prefer the water, so-" She started to raise her paw to wave at Ally and Eve, but I sort of freaked out a bit at the thought of loosing a moment alone with her and I ended up doing something stupid.

"No wait!" I exclaimed, quickly attempting to block her paw, but accidentally ending up tripping and knocking the two of us into the water together.

That's it, she's fed up with me...or at least I thought so. Surprisingly she just ended up laughing more fully than ever.

"Haha. Well that's certainly one way to get me in the water." She commented, an extremely bright smile on her face as she playfully splashed some water in my face. "What's the matter? Don't want your sisters to talk with us?"

"Umm, well. I uh..." I couldn't come up with a response to that no matter how hard I tried. Esuna looked at me in confusion before a light smile rested on her face.

"Hey, look. Luke. I've gotta go, but I promise I'll see you around ok?" Something about that promise made me want to say something back, but for the life of me I couldn't force myself to do so as she began to leave.

"Uhh, wait!" I yelled after her. She turned back to me with a look of confusion. "Umm... It was uh, nice meeting you!" Dang it! What was up with me?!

"Heh. It was a pleasure to meet you as well. See you later Luke." She said farewell as she disappeared. I sat around for a moment before looking back at the direction she had gone. I checked around for Ally and the others and sighed. "Ok Ally, I'm taking your advice."

* * *

**1:30pm, Wigglytuff's Guild Sentry Hole, Austin's POV:**

We had been down in the sentry hole for a while now, and the number of pokemon entering the guild was starting to diminish. Flare was surprisingly good at identifying footprints, so she basically took that whole part of the job while I just informed Loudred. Finally I could yell at him for once.

The job was easier than I had originally thought though, so most of the time we just sat around talking until a visitor came and Flare looked up to identify them. The whole thing made me feel kind of bad though. It made me realize that I didn't really know any of my team members besides Ally and Eve. I hadn't really talked to the others like this before. I didn't even know Flare was only fifteen, much less the youngest on the team.

"Wait, so you were only fourteen when we met you?" I asked her in surprise. She laughed.

"Pretty much. I've been the youngest member on the team this whole time. You never asked, so of course you wouldn't know. To be honest, I'm really grateful that you let us on the team in the first place. Drew and I really didn't have anywhere else to go-oddish!" She thanked me, quickly adding on the name of a pokemon who had suddenly appeared on the grate.

"Yeah... Sorry about not asking. I've really gotta start talking to you guys more. I'm the leader and I don't even know my own team..."

Flare looked down towards the floor and then back up at me. "Well, you were busy with Ally. I get it though. Seems like your getting the idea now. You're not too bad a leader either. Your decision on Mt. Bristle just about saved my life. I wouldn't have gotten to the guild in time without it."

"Yeah I guess so..." I looked up and saw a pokemon walk onto the grate. "Wait a minute I know this one. Eevee!"

Seconds later a familiar voice shouted down the grate. "Well you better know my footprint!" It was Ally.

"Well of course I do, it's cute." I shouted back. I looked back down at Flare who seemed to be laughing at my comment about Ally's footprint. "I think Chatot said we could stop once our team came back. Diglet said he'd only be a few hours anyway." I reasoned.

"Good. This hole is starting to mess with my allergies anyway. I can't stand stuffy places." She explained before sneezing, almost setting me on fire in the process. "Oops. Sorry..."

"Ok. Fire type sneezes are dangerous. Let's go ahead and get out of here before you really set me on fire." We both laughed before making our way out of the hole.

On the guild's second floor, we met up with the rest of our team, except strangely Luke, and Chatot. Oh yeah. Diglet and Loudred were there too. "You two make quite the sentries so it seems." Chatot complemented. "You didn't miss a single one. Not so sure I can say the same for Diglet over the years."

"Hey!" Diglet complained, flashing an angry look at Chatot.

"Anyway, I shall send your reward to Kangaskhan for storage." Chatot faced the rest of our team. It seemed that Conor and Drew had arrived at the same time as the others. "And I assume you four have good news as well?"

Eve was jumping up and down excitedly, so I would guess so. "You bet! Look!" Eve pulled out a decently sized blue gem from her bag. "There was a cave behind the waterfall with a bunch of these at the end of its dungeon. Of course there was a giant gem booby-trap at the end that flushed us out of the cave with water and shot us all the way to a hot spring, but we did get to keep a bunch of gems."

I could tell that Chatot was going to suggest they give up half the gems for guild policy, but he hesitated and stopped himself before he could say it. I would guess he didn't have the heart to disappoint Eve in her excited state. "Well then, I'd say the exploration was quite a success. Not only did you discover a hidden cave behind a waterfall, but also a hot spring that I've never heard about. Well done!"

Oddly enough, Alex seemed to be keeping to himself the entire time. Gee, how deep in thought could the guy get? He had his eyes closed and wasn't paying attention to anything that was going on.

"Say Chatot... Are you sure Wigglytuff hasn't been to that Waterfall before?" He asked surprisingly. Eve immediately stopped jumping and looked at him in utter shock.

"Alex? What are you talking about?" Eve seemed really confused at the moment, but if this continued any further I couldn't imagine it going over well with her.

"Yes Alex. What are you insinuating. That's preposterous. Wigglytuff certainly wouldn't send a team on an exploration mission where he's already discovered the secret. It doesn't make sense." Chatot reasoned, but Alex didn't seem too convinced. "...Ugh. Fine. I will go and check with Wigglytuff to try and confirm this ridiculous theory, but trust me when I say that there's a good chance of disappointment either way." He flew off to Wigglytuff's chamber in an instant.

Eve didn't look happy with Alex. "Alex, what are you doing?! We made an awesome discovery and you're making us look bad!"

"I wouldn't be too sure. Remember in my vision? I saw a silhouette throw an apple at the waterfall. The silhouette looked an awful lot like Wigglytuff, and who else would throw an apple at a waterfall?"

Eve looked conflicted by his reasoning. Why would he want to ruin this for her? I didn't get it. "But... But you don't have to say anything about that! We worked hard to discover that ourselves!" Eve looked angry again. I've never really seen her get angry at Alex before, so this was a bit surprising.

Alex didn't react to her words in a way I would expect. Of course he didn't argue with her, but he didn't show any support either. He just shook his head. "You want to be a great explorer right?"

"Well of course I do! That's why I came here in the first place!" Eve yelled at him.

"Then answer me this. Would a great explorer honorably take credit for a discovery that someone else made? No, because if they did, it wouldn't be honorable. They'd just be cheating their way to the top, and where's the fun in that? You said you wanted this to be fun right? I'm trying to help, and I won't ruin this team's reputation. I won't let you ruin yours either." Alex's words seemed to hit hard, and Eve looked on the verge of tears. That's when Alex's expression softened and he leaned down towards Eve. "Eve, it's ok. I'm not mad at you. I just want to help."

She nodded. "I know. I get it now..."

"Umm, guys? Where's Luke?" I spoke up, interrupting the moment. I didn't really want Eve to burst into tears in front of Chatot."

"Oh, umm. We're not really sure. We think he left the hot spring without us. We were hoping he was with you." Ally explained. It seemed that Luke wandered off again. Great...

Chatot returned a moment later looking rather annoyed. "Well it seems that Alex is rather deductive. Either that or he's just a really good guesser. Regardless, it would seem that he was indeed correct about Wigglytuff. He has been to the waterfall before and has discovered the cave. As to why he sent you to a pre-discovered area, well, he can be a bit erratic and forgetful at times. You should get used to it from now on if you're gonna continue to train here. Come to the guildmaster's chamber when you're ready. There's something we'd like to speak to you about. You are dismissed." Chatot explained before leaving.

I turned back to the others. "Alright guys. We need to find Luke. Let's get to it."

* * *

**2:00pm, Somewhere near Treasure Town, Luke's POV:**

I had split off from the group a while ago at the hot spring and set off to follow Esuna. Problem was, I had somewhat lost sight of her. Great...

I kind of started daydreaming about her as I was walking. She was so beautiful...

"Hey clumsy. Whatcha doing all the way out here?" Esuna said from behind me, shocking me out of my daydreamy state and making me jump.

"Huh, what?! I'm not following you, no!" I practically gave away in a flash of surprise.

"Heh, relax Luke. I saw you the entire time." She laughed. My cheeks burned at her revelation. "It's fine. You wanted to talk to me didn't you?"

"Oh, I uh, umm... Well...yes! I mean, we didn't get to, umm, talk much at the uhh...hot spring and umm...yeah..." I stumbled, trying to phrase a sentence as best I could.

"Oh, ok. So there is something you wanted to talk to me about." She inferred. That's where I got stuck.

"Well I...I don't exactly uh..." Suddenly, the sun's rays shifted over so that they shone directly behind and on top of Esuna, making her golden fur look like it were glowing. It's easy to say that I kind of zoned out at that moment. I started daydreaming again...well half-daydreaming at least. I still had at least some grasp on what was going on. "Heh, you're pretty...~" Or not...

I snapped out of my trance the moment I had said that, but it was too late. Esuna's cheeks had turned a bright shade of pink as she tried to cover her face, but instead of turning away, she started laughing. "Hehe, oh. I am?" She uncovered her still quite pink face and faced me. "Well then... If you think I'm so pretty... How about we go do something together? Hmm?" She asked, smiling cutely. Wait, did she just...

"T-together? Umm...you mean. Like a date?" She nodded. "Oh! Umm...y-yeah. Yes! Of course! I mean umm...what do you want to do?" I asked her, suddenly feeling like it was a bit easier to talk to her. It still wasn't all that easy though.

She laughed. "I have a feeling your team is wondering where you are, so how about the café? I'm friends with Spinda so I can probably get us a discount." My eyes widened. The team.

"The café sounds great. Umm...Esuna? Could you umm..."

"Could I what?" She reiterated, looking a bit confused about my recent wide-eyed look.

I looked at her as if I were pleading. "Could you please join our team? I think it'd be fun having you around and-"

"Sure!" She smiled. "Though isn't the pleading usually supposed to come from the applicant's side?" She laughed. "Come on, let's not worry the rest of your team any more than you probably have. I'm sure they're already looking for you."

"Thank you! I need to ask Austin for approval anyway." I explained as I took the lead. Things went better than I thought. Man, I should take Ally's advice more often.

"Joining them... Huh, who woulda thought..." Esuna muttered as we made our way back to town...wait a minute...

"Agh! I don't remember how to get back to town! Where were you going anyway?" I asked her. She just shrugged.

"I don't know. I just wanted to see how far you'd follow me. I didn't expect to come out of it with date plans, but ya know." She smiled. "Come on, follow me. Just because I wasn't sure where I was going doesn't mean I wasn't keeping track of where I went." She motioned with her head to follow her before she turned and headed in the opposite direction.

"Oh come on!"

* * *

**2:30pm, Wigglytuff's Guild 2nd floor, Eve's POV:**

"Ugh, come on. Where is he?!" I complained. We had searched for half an hour already and had come up with no signs of Luke. We finally had to come back to the guild to rest. "What's up with him running off anyway?"

Austin plopped down and leaned his back against a wall, his arms crossed over his chest. "Well, where was he when ha last saw him? There has to be a reason."

Ally raised her paw. "He was with Esuna. I accidentally pushed him into her. I didn't see anything after that-ooooh. Yeah, I think I know where he is now."

Austin looked at her inquisitively. "Really? How so? Where?"

"He's with Esuna I bet. He likes her. Probably followed her and she left before we did."

"True, true and true." Someone said over to our right. Seconds later, Luke dropped down the ladder followed by Esuna. "Hey guys! Sorry I ditched ya."

"Oh hey Esuna! You here to talk to Wigglytuff?" Ally inferred. Esuna shook her head.

"Actually, I'm here to talk to Austin. I have a request of him." She replied.

"Me? What can I do for you?" Austin asked her, standing up and walking over.

"Well I wanted to know if I could join your team. You're pretty big as it is and I understand if you don't-"

"Alright, welcome aboard." Austin smiled as he held his paw out to shake Esuna's. What?! Just like that?!

Ally looked at Esuna and then at Luke. "Wait a minute? You guys aren't-"

"Dating?" Esuna finished for her as she was shaking paws with Austin. "Well you can say that, yeah. I asked him out about half an our ago. He's not too good with talking to girls he likes is he?" Luke blushed at her comment. I could understand why. Really, anyone could. Even she could tell he liked her.

"Wait! Luke has a girlfriend?! Haha! Wait till I tell Mom!" Luke looked a bit nervous at my declaration. "What?"

Austin punched his fist into the air. "Alright guys! We should go meet with Wigglytuff now. Chatot said he had something he needed to tell us. Plus, we have a new team member that needs registration with the guild. No slacking off. Let's go."

* * *

**Wigglytuff's Chamber:**

"Yoom-Tah! Hello Team Eviolite! I see you brought in another friend. I'll have another badge made right away, but never mind that for now. We have some friendly guests here that wish to meet you. They'll be explaining something you'll soon be doing as one of your regular daily activities." Wigglytuff explained once we entered the room.

To his left standing next to Chatot was an espeon, a raichu, a herdier, and a charmeleon. The espeon stepped forward.

"Hello Team Eviolite, I'm Evelyn, the leader of Team Daybreak. These are my team mates. The raichu over here is name Erik, the herdier is named Dusk (don't ask why), and my friend the charmeleon is Scorch. We're came here to meet you, but our old guildmaster apparently wants us to explain to you how patrol missions work."

"Patrol?" I reiterated. Evelyn nodded.

"Precisely. Now take out your map. This is important." Evelyn requested. I of course did as told and spread the map out on the ground. Evelyn pointed to Treasure Town. "Ok so we are here. While on patrol, you'll travel on a set route between three different towns, doing different tasks along the way like perhaps mail deliveries (which are rare), requests from people you meet, outlaw captures, or even assigning yourself your own missions. Of course there'll likely be some small chores requested of you as well, but the point is it's a very important job. Way more complexed that your everyday mission. Look here." She pointed to three different locations on the map. "These are the three different towns that we'll be sending you to tomorrow. Trello Town, Auburn Town, and Castello Town. According to Wigglytuff, if you do well, you'll be able to perform these type of missions before you reach diamond rank. Now look here. Participating in patrol at such an early stage is an honor. You should jump at a chance like this. Don't waste it."

I nodded as quickly as I could. I literally was jumping at this chance. "There's no way we're wasting this! We're gonna make it look easy! Nothing is gonna stop me in becoming the best explorer! We have to do this! What do ya say guys?!" I asked, turning around.

Austin smiled. "What do I say?" Austin pumped his fist into the air. "I say I agree with Eve!"

Evelyn smiled at our enthusiasm. "Great. Oh and one more thing. You won't be able to take your treasure bags or any items on this test. Also, only four members are allowed to participate. If you get knocked out of any dungeon, you fail."

"Whaaaaat?!"

* * *

_**"In the end it is curiosity which moves us to try new things, and adventure that drives us to employ them."** _

* * *

 

 


	8. The Switch! Patrol Gone Wrong?

 

* * *

_"It is always said that one who takes a walk in their partner's shoes has a greater effect on their heart..."_

* * *

**Eve's POV:**

"Whaaaaat?!" We all exclaimed, seemingly catching Chatot off guard as he lost his footing and hit the floor comically.

"We can't bring any items? And only four members can go?" I asked her, basically reiterating what she had previously said.

She looked at me, seemingly a bit unsure about us as she turned back to face Wigglytuff. "Wigglytuff, are you really sure that this is the team you want to promote? They don't seem very serious about it."

"What?! Not serious about it?! What do ya mean?!" I asked her, getting a tense. She faced me again, but in a more curious manor than before.

"What do I mean?" She repeated. "Well Eve, this test...it's not just some simple task to promote you. No. We want to see if you're ready to deal with the conditions professional teams deal with every day out on their adventures. When you set out on a long journey, often times you'll start running low on supplies. There won't always be a place for you to stock up on items. You'll have to learn to make due if you ever hope to make it as a real team. Remember, this is an establishment designed to train beginners like test is simply to help you learn, and you guys are already whining about the restrictions."

I grit my teeth at her explanation. She was right, those were stupid things to be whining about... "Ugh, well you may have a point..." I hung my head low for but a second before I stamped my foot on the ground so suddenly that Chatot flinched. "But there's no way that I'm not serious about exploring! You can forget that! I'm going to be the best, and that's all there is to it!"

Her curious look only seemed to intensify. "The best huh?" She approached me and rubbed the top of my head with her paw. "Then you'd better hurry up and graduate from this guild." She stepped back. 'Ugh, why did she have to mess up my fur?' "There are a lot of teams out there that are looking for what you're looking for."

"Anyway, speaking of exploring, the patrol test is not all that Wigglytuff has called you in here for. I'll leave it to you Wigglytuff." 'Something else? How could there be something else? This news was already pretty big.' I felt the all too familiar flame of excitement start to ignite within my gut as my tail involuntarily swished back and forth.

"Yoom-tah!" Exclaimed Wigglyguff, as per usual. "Alright Eviolite friends, normally this isn't even considered for our new friends, but you guys show great talent. The guild's annual expedition is coming up soon, and I'm considering letting you come along this year!"

I jumped at the news. "Expedition?! You mean some kind of long exploration or something?! To make a big discovery?! That kind of expedition?!"

This time, Chatot stepped in and explained. "Well generally yes, though it's not guaranteed we will find anything. It is still a great honor to be able to go, let alone be considered. I will have no slacking off from any of you. From now on, all of you will be constantly reviewed by the guildmaster and myself based on your performance here at the guild or on missions. It'd be wise to give it your all."

"So it's some sort of selection process. You select members of the guild who you deem best fit to go on the expedition, while leaving the rest to the guild to run and protect it. It's almost like a competition." Alex summed up. Chatot nodded.

"Exactly. We can't leave the guild unprotected for prolonged periods of time. It's simply a matter of security." Chatot confirmed. "Furthermore, a massive group such as the entire lot of the guild would only slow progress. Now, if there are no further questions, you are dismissed."

At that, Evelyn and her team members said farewell to Wigglytuff and exited the room. However, before Evelyn left, she stopped by me and smiled.

"You'll have to tell me how you're mother's doing when we meet again. The test will be three days from tomorrow. That's just before the guild plans to leave on the expedition, so don't forget." She said before leaving the room, not even giving me enough time to respond.

"My mother?"

* * *

**6:00pm, Grace Family House:**

After Esuna received her badge, we left Wigglytuff's chamber and spent a couple of hours around town. We decided to head home once the first signs of nightfall presented themselves over the town. It wasn't quite time to sleep yet, so we were all gathered in the living room either conversing, practicing magic or reading...well except for Alex. He had taken our badges and was working on upgrading them all.

"So Ally? How exactly do ya think Evelyn knows Mom?" I asked Ally, who at the moment seemed to have lost the attention of her boyfriend to a spell book. He was really in to those lately.

"Mmm...I'm not really sure. Mom's never mentioned anyone by that name. I guess they could be friends." She guessed.

"Maybe..." I drifted. "Austin's sure been into spell books lately. What's up with him?"

"Not sure. My only guess is that he really likes magic. I mean he seems to really love using it. He's probably just studying." Ally observed as she poked the said pikachu, receiving no response. She laughed at his strange behavior. "I've never really seen him this focused on anything. What could be driving him to study this hard?"

I focused on him for a second and was soon reminded of what had almost happened when Shade had infiltrated the house. Oh...

"What is it Eve?" Ally asked me. Seems that I had zoned out for a second. I shook my head to clear out my thoughts.

"Eh, it's nothing." I assured her. Truth is, I didn't want to concern her. I looked back over at Austin and sighed. I knew he felt responsible.

Just then, Alex entered the room and sat down next to us on the couch. "Hey Eve, Ally." He greeted as he sat down. "Wait a minute, Austin's stuck in a book?! That's surprising." He commented before it hit him in the face.

"Actually, I just finished it. Not too fond of the comment man." Austin said in an annoyed tone, crossing his arms.

My eyes lit up with a bit of mischief. "Magic nerd..." I whispered, not really caring if he had herd me. Turns out he had, much to his own annoyance as he rolled his eyes.

Alex picked up the book while rubbing the side of his face. "This is pretty heavy. You must be pretty into magic..." He examined the cover with interest. According to the cover, the title of the book was 'Advanced Elemental Combat Magic'. "And from this title, I'm assuming this isn't the first book you've read?"

Austin shook his head. "Nope. That's the third volume. There are five. Ella told me I have an unusual magic typing. Especially for a transent wizard, so I chose these books first."

Ally looked at him in confusion. "Unusual magic typing? Like what?"

"Well your mom told me that all wizards have a specific magical typing that they specialize in, kind of like pokemon have types and a specialty in certain attacks. There are a lot of these typings, like divine and dark, and mine is called elemental magic." He explained.

Ally nodded. "Ok, but why is it unusual?"

"Well your mom also said that wizards born in this world rarely have some of the more powerful typings, likely because they remain partially disconnected from the wizard world, and that mine is one of the rarest among typings. Also, transent wizards usually retain the magical typing of the wizard they've formed a bond with, but in my case I didn't. According to your mom, your typing is celestial. You specialize in object creation spells and spells that don't involve physical contact like barriers or force manipulation while I specialize in spells involving the elements, especially electricity since I'm an electric type. She said it was almost unheard of for such a different match in typing to occur between a transent pair."

Ally looked enlightened. "Oh. That makes sense I guess... So you've been practicing?" She asked him.

"Yep. Magic's cooler than I thought it would be. Speaking of which, have you done any training yet?" Austin asked back.

She sighed. "Oh... I guess not. I should probably get around to that." Ally said, slightly embarrassed. "Maybe I could find a book here on my typing."

"Surely. I've searched the entire house out of interest. I'm not a wizard, but magic interests me as well. Your parents have quite an extensive library of books. It's pretty impressive." Alex informed, seemingly impressed.

Austin got up seconds later. "Well Ally, I'm gonna head to our room. You coming sweetheart?" He asked Ally with a smile shortly after stretching. Ally smiled as well, nodding as she got up, bid us good night and followed him down the right hall. I always wondered why he kept to the 'sweetheart' thing.

I looked over at Luke after they had left. When Esuna said that they were dating, I was a bit surprised. He actually got comfortable around her. Even so, he still had those red cheeks going for him...

"Well he sure seems happy." Alex said, getting up from his sitting position. "Come on. I think we should leave them to themselves to talk for a while. Besides, Drew, Flare and the others have all went to bed and it's pretty late. We should too."

I nodded, getting up myself and following him down the hall to our room.

* * *

**9:00am, Grace Family House:**

I woke up early the next morning in anticipation of the coming expedition. Even though it wasn't happening for another three days, we were still being judged for it. I wanted to go, so high performance was a must.

I rolled off of my bed and snuck over to Alex's, jumping up onto it as I did so. He was sleeping in a rather unusual fashion, though I guess it suited him. He was laying on his back with his arms crossed behind his head as support, and I'm pretty sure he'd have his legs crossed if they were long enough. "Hmm..." A thought crossed through my head as I lifted my paw and prodded his face gently. "Poke."

He batted my paw away and turned away from me as I stifled a laugh. I placed my paw on him once more and started shaking him. He still wouldn't wake up, so my mind thought up yet another solution.

"Ok ok Eve, I'm up. Stop shaking me." Alex pleaded after I nearly pushed him off of his bed. Ok, I guess I was being a bit dramatic, but we couldn't mess this up. "Ok, please don't tell me you're gonna get hyper again and run off."

I laughed at his plea. "Heh, yeah. Sorry about that. I'll try but I can't promise anything."

"Yeah, I can see why that might be a problem for you." He laughed. "Exploring really excites you."

"Speaking of running off, we should really get going before we get summoned again by the magic nerd. I'm really getting tired of my ears popping. Eevee ears weren't meant to be subjected to such torture."

"The magic nerd?" Alex laughed. "What'd Austin do to deserve that?"

"Well let's see... He read three whole spell books without a problem, and I'm sure he memorized then all." I explained, as if it weren't obvious. "Plus there's the ear popping thing."

"Yeah, I would guess that those big ears are pretty sensitive." He assumed. "Then again, long, big ears and extremely bushy tails are the pride of eevees. They make you look cute."

I felt that all too familiar warmth flood into my cheeks again. 'He thinks I look cute?' "I-I um... Heh, ya know~. W-we should probably go now." With that nervous statement, I grabbed his hand and shot out the door and down the hall, pulling him along with me.

Like yesterday, Austin was waiting in the middle of the living room, tapping his foot on the floor impatiently. I could only assume that we were the ones he was waiting on since the others were already in the room. It was pretty bad that we were the only ones to make the team late... It was also pretty bad that we were about to crash into him.

He turned just in time for us to collide with him...or so I thought. Just when we were about to collide with him, we hit some sort of barrier and bounced back onto one of the couches in the room. 'What?! Did we just bounce off of air?'

After recovering from the impact, I shook my head and jumped off of the couch. "What just happened?"

"Hmm?" Austin looked at me a bit confused. "Oh, finally you show up. I thought I was gonna have to use that summoning spell again. Good thing I'm quick with that barrier though."

"Barrier?" I repeated as I walked up to him and tried to jap him, only to hit a seemingly invisible wall that shone a bit upon impact. "Alright then." I pulled my paw back swiftly before bringing it forward again, slamming it hard into the barrier and shattering it completely. A shockwave emitted outwards slightly from the impact. "Eh, not very strong..."

"Well if ya hit it like that!" Austin shouted, sounding quite vexed. "Where'd ya learn to do that anyway?"

"Hmm...I don't know. Just kinda did." I replied. Austin just sighed.

"Well regardless, we have to get to the guild. I wouldn't think that being late would be so impressive to Chatot or Wigglytuff." Austin looked at me with an obviously intensional smirk on his face. I merely sneered in response. I wish I could hit him for real this time, without the protection of that barrier, but Ally was watching so it wouldn't exactly do my conscience any favors. "Especially with the expedition coming up so quickly."

I tapped my foot on the ground impatiently. "Are ya gonna keep standing there saying things we already know, or are we gonna go now?"

Too bad for him. He stood there a bit too long. "Well-"

"Sorry Ally!" I yelled quickly as I struck him hard in the face with my paw. He was sent out the door (luckily it was open) where he tumbled and slid to a stop on the sandy pathway of the housing district. Townsfolk who happened to be passing by at the time all stopped and looked at him in bewilderment.

I smiled widely in satisfaction. "Hehe. Sorry Ally, but he was taxing my patience. Let's go guys!" I walked out the door, ignoring his possibly unconscious form as I turned down the path to the guild.

* * *

**Wigglytuff's Guild:**

It appeared that the assembly had just ended when I slid down the ladder to the guild's second floor. Austin and the others hadn't shown up yet, so I decided to go ahead and visit the guildmaster. If anything, Chatot could tell us what we had to do today.

I began making my way over to the chamber when suddenly two dimly familiar figures blocked my path followed by someone I was sure I had never seen before.

"Woah there! Lookie here. It looks like we've crossed paths with the chicken again." Said one of them, a coffing to his comrades, a zubat and a skuntank.

I looked up at them with an unamused expression. "Umm...and you three are?" I asked them, not even bothering to remember.

They looked dumbstruck. "What?!" The zubat exclaimed as he looked at the skuntank. "She doesn't remember us boss. How rude is that?"

The "boss" as he called him shook his head, calling them "knuckleheads" before glaring at me. "So you're the little wimp who foolishly took down my companions a while back. Become an explorer too I see?"

I looked the other two up and down. No doubt that they were the ones who had stolen my relic fragment. They had come from the direction of the crew rooms so they must've become explorers. "How the heck did you two become explorers? It's not like you're actually in to helping people or catching outlaws. Considering you are outlaws...petty ones, but you are."

"What?! Why you little!" Skuntank responded angrily as he attempted to cut me with a slash attack. Of course, having dealt with this kind of thing many times before, I had no problem with backflipping out of the attack's range. I smirked when I landed.

"Gotta be quicker than that to catch me. I'm not a wimp as you're companions tell you I am." Just then, Austin and the others dropped down the ladder.

"Ugh. Seriously Eve. You didn't have to flatten me like that. Ya know it's not nice to start off the day with a splitting headache." He complained, walking up to me with his paw to his head. "Who're these guys anyway?"

Alex and the others approached rather quickly when they saw what stance I was in. "They're the ones who stole from Eve shortly after she met me. The coffing and the zubat at least, not sure about the skuntank."

Austin didn't look too happy to hear that as he clenched his fists and glared at the three thieves. His cheeks flickered with electricity like they always did when he got angry. "You guys are the ones who messed with my teammate?!"

Skuntank looked amused, quite in contrast to his two teammates who were now hiding behind him. "So you've got quite a number of friends I see." He turned to Zubat and Coffing. "Well boys, it's about time we head out. We've got some things to talk about." The two looked pretty nervous when he finished that last sentence.

The three made their way to leave, but I stopped Skuntank at the ladder.

"Just what are you guys doing here anyway?" I asked him, a bit confused as to why Wigglytuff would allow them to stay here.

Without turning around, Skuntank laughed. "Didn't you hear? Wigglytuff hired us as honored guests for the upcoming expedition. I suppose we'll see you around. Oh and uh, you can call us Team Skull." He then left up the ladder as well.

"Ugh. How could Wigglytuff hire them?" I complained. To us they were petty thieves, but we didn't really know all that much about them. Their "boss", or whoever he was, looked a lot stronger than Coffing and Zubat, so who knows what crimes he's committed. They had to be plotting something.

Just then, Chatot exited from Wigglytuff's chamber and spotted us. "Ah, Team Eviolite. Come here. I have something very crucial to discuss with you."

"Crucial? Sounds like boring work. I'm outta here." I tried to run off but to no avail. Alex caught me and carried me all the way over to Chatot. The act was slightly annoying, then again I probably would've gotten in trouble for running off. Stupid Chatot...

"Excuse me? Are you telling me that you refuse to handle business that's crucial to the needs of the guildmaster himself? If so, your chances in going on the expedition don't look so high." Ugh. Chatot could be so annoying. He did have a point though.

"Uh, no! Not at all! Eheheh. I was just kidding!" I pleaded nervously. This expedition was my first real chance to discover something exciting and newsworthy. I couldn't afford to be considered unfit to go.

Chatot gave me a short, unamused expression before addressing the rest of the group. I stuck my tongue out at him when he wasn't looking however. Know it all...

"Anyway, so some of you may have noticed that Wigglytuff takes a particular liking to a specific food. This food, and I don't know why, but for some reason it means the world to him, and to put it simply, we're out of Perfect Apples. And I don't mean to freak you out or anything, but this has never happened before and the guildmaster gets, well, I don't even want to talk about it. The point is, without Perfect Apples, something very bad will happen."

There was such thing as a perfect apple? "So you're saying that you ran out of these perfect apples? Where could they have gone? I mean, certainly if you know that something bad happens when Wigglytuff doesn't have them, you must have reserves of them." Alex reasoned.

Chatot sighed. "Well normally, yes. But it seems that our reserves have been raided. You see, the guildmaster has a habit of sneaking out at night to pilfer the guild's food supply, and no amount of lock and key will stop him." Ugh. Figures. We give up ninety percent of our earnings towards this kind of stuff only for our guildmaster to pilfer the food supply...

Chatot flapped his wings to recapture our attention. "Anyway, your mission is to go out and scavenge for Perfect Apples in the woods East of Waterfall Cave. Please keep in mind that this is a high priority mission and must be completed as quickly and carefully as possible."

Austin nodded and Chatot dismissed us before practically freaking out and rushing back into Wigglytuff's chamber. "Well he's a nervous wreck today..." Flare noted, making her way over to Croagunk's station. She seemed to speak to him about something before he turned around, picked something up out of his cauldron and placed it in her paw.

"Hey Drew!" She called. "Got something for ya!" She held up some sort of amulet in her paw. I figured she must've traded some stuff for it in Croagunk's shop.

"Uhh, what is it?" He asked, walking over in question of the newly mentioned item. Flare smiled.

"It's a gift silly. I traded some stuff for it. It's an amulet that raises the defense and special defense of quilava." She carefully placed the thin necklace part around his neck.

"Oh uh, thanks. Eheheh." He smiled awkwardly, only to blush when she gave him a small peck on the cheek.

"Yeah well let's get going before you have to use the amulet to defend against Chatot when he gets onto us about not leaving right away." She laughed, leading him up the ladder, the rest of us following shortly.

* * *

**10:00am, Crossroads, Alex's POV:**

Once out of the guild, we followed Austin (strangely Eve made no attempt to run ahead) down the staircase, stopping at the center of the crossroads.

"So Austin, obviously we can't all go on this mission. There'd be not point in sending nine of us to pick up some apples, but there's another issue." Noting the size of our team, we'd likely have to split up daily tasks such as this often, and since the number of members we have is odd, if we split up into two four member teams, one member would be left out. "If we split up so that one group goes on missions, it would be more beneficial to send out three instead of four. Just in the case that we get any on-spot requests from townsfolk or otherwise while we're out. We don't want to leave just one of us here to handle something like that, and we certainly don't want to turn it down."

Austin looked at me oddly. "When did you become our team's strategist?" He laughed. "I guess that makes sense. I was just gonna let the others have a break while we were gone. Ehehe..." Well one thing's for sure. They're sure lucky they had Ally on the team...

"Ok then. If we're doing it how Alex says we should, then Connor, Drew and Flare should take missions while we search for Perfect Apples. Luke and Esuna, you guys can stay here. Now let's hurry up before Chatot spots us and freaks out about how "crucial" this mission is."

After some more discussion and a few moments of preparation, we separated. Connor, Drew and Flare headed back into the guild in search of missions, Luke and Esuna headed for town (I assumed they took this opportunity as a window for a date), and we set out for the appropriately named Apple Woods.

**Dungeon Entrance - Apple Woods:**

As it turns out, Apple Woods lies just beyond another wooded area called Oran Forest. Instead of apples, oran berries littered the trees and that was pretty much all you could find. We had to pass through the forest and its dungeon first in order to even get to our destination, since taking a route around it proved not only to be longer but more dangerous as we knew little to nothing about the area or the dungeons surrounding it. On the bright side, at least we now had a three week supply of oran berries stocked up.

Anyway, compared to Oran Forest, Apple Woods was seemingly no different in appearance. The only notable differences were the apples (obviously) and the ground, which was composed of mostly soil as apposed to Oran Forest's grassy terrain. There wasn't much of an entrance really. In fact, the two forests were seemingly connected. The decently sized path we had taken just after exiting the previous dungeon had a point at which the trees grew apples instead of oran berries. The scenery seemed to gradually transition at that point as well. It was rather odd.

We were currently resting in a clearing between the two forests before what we believed to be the entrance to the dungeon of Apple Woods. We had gotten a little carried away with the oran berry collecting, so Austin was in the middle of emptying his bag while the rest of us rested. After all, we needed some room for the Perfect Apples.

"Hey Austin. Almost done over there? Getting kind of bored here." Eve complained. She had been doing so for the past ten minutes. I was starting to wonder if, compared to her, Austin or Ally actually had ADHD. It was hard to tell. I decided to test just how hyperactive she was. Mainly her reflexes.

I took an oran berry out of my bag and held it up. "Hey Eve." She looked over at me and tilted her head. "Think fast!" I quickly threw the berry at her as hard as I could. Her eyes widened for a second before she hit it with her paw. The motion itself was incredibly fast. Too bad it was the wrong one...

Once deflected, the berry flew straight up and before she could react, it dropped straight down and smashed on her head. "Oh Arceus no..." But it was too late. Oran berry juice, to my knowledge, had the most potential to stain out of all other berries, and now that juice was all over Eve's fur. How could one berry do so much damage?

She just sat there and blinked for a second before reaching into her own bag. Not a second passed before I received a face full of oran berry. She had thrown about three at me, which I quickly wiped away. "Yeah, I kinda deserved that." Apparently that wasn't the last of it though as one more hit me from above, in a similar fashion to the one that hit Eve. "That too." I laughed. I looked up at Eve's ear to find that (by pure luck) her bow had remained perfectly clean. The juice would probably have ruined it since it was partially made of synthetic material.

Apparently, Austin and Ally had been watching and got their share of amusement from the episode. "Guys! Stop wasting our resources! Those are for missions ya know!" Austin complained.

I got up and walked over to her. "Here, let me take that off for you." I offered, noting that her paws also had a bit of juice on them and she'd probably get it dirty if she tried to remove the bow herself. I still had one clean hand however.

"Wait! My bow's not dirty? You are lucky." Eve pointed out as I removed the bow and placed it in her bag.

I rubbed my arm nervously. "Yeah, sorry about that. Not my smartest decision huh? Ehehe."

Eve just smiled at me. "Eh, don't sweat it. I already hit you with a couple of them so we're even. Besides, I'm sure my mom knows a cleaning spell that can get rid of this stuff. I'll just deal with it for now." I had a feeling that she only reserved that response for me...

"Oh umm, ok then..." To be honest though, she kinda looked cute with that berry juice in her fur.

"Ok guys, bag's all empty and that's taken care of, so why don't we get back to the mission at hand? We still have a dungeon to pass through." Austin suggested. Eve and I nodded and I helped her up. After regrouping and strategizing a bit, we entered the dungeon.

**Inside Dungeon - Apple Woods:**

So far it had been pretty straight forward. The number of resident pokemon who had approached us had been relatively low so far and the dungeon wasn't too hard to navigate. Plus, it probably helped that the berry juice that was still all over me and Eve made our group look like less of a threat.

Eve took a second to rub a portion of her fur, only to produce a disgusted expression in response. "Ugh, eww. This stuff is really getting sticky now. We need to hurry up and get those stupid apples." She complained. Apparently, oran berry juice did a lot more than just stain. It appeared to get sticky after drying.

"Don't worry Eve. This dungeon doesn't look like it'll take much time to get through. Then we'll just grab some Perfect Apples and get out of here. You can take a shower then. Besides, you two seem to be keeping a majority of the dungeon's residents away from us." Austin laughed, resulting in a menacing glare from Eve.

Eve raised a paw up at him. "Oh yeah! Well what's that supposed ta mean huh?!" Austin may have been the leader, but that didn't mean he wasn't scared of Eve.

"W-what?! Oh, nothing! I just meant that your fur looks so bad right now that-" Uh-oh...

Eve's expression was scary. "Rrgh! Austin!" She knocked him straight over the head with the flat of her paw, not even giving him time to protest. I found it quite amusing actually.

Austin sat crouched on the floor with his paws to his head. "Ugh... Sometimes I regret letting her join the team..."

"What was that?!" Eve demanded.

Austin bolted straight up with his arms in front of himself in protest. "Nothing! Nothing at all!"

"Eh, I agree with Eve. The stuff's all over me, including my tail leaf, which I'm pretty sure interferes with its ability to photosynthesize. I don't think that's healthy..." I was a bit unsure about how the whole photosynthesis tail thing worked in with the diet and bodily processes of a snivy. I knew that a snivy's tail would droop when they were sick, but other than that, I was pretty clueless. I was starting to get the feeling that Austin and I should probably learn about the species we've been turned into. I mean, it'd be pretty bad if we were unaware of something crucial to our health...

Suddenly my eyes flicked to the right and caught sight of something. I barely had time to bring out my sword before quickly jumping in front of my group and slashing clean through the middle of a falling tree, splitting it in half just before it could land on top of us. The now halved tree landed around us, one half in front, one in back as I just stared at my sword in astonishment.

The same could be said for my teammates, except they were staring at me instead of the sword. "Alex, how the heck did you do that?!" Eve shouted.

"I have no clue. This sword shouldn't normally be able to cut through such a thick tree." I replied, confusedly staring down at the halved piece of forestry. "More importantly, why would a tree fall in the middle of a dungeon? I thought you said these type of things didn't happen unless you stepped on a trap, and I don't see one." I asked Eve, looking suspiciously over in the direction the tree had previously been.

"We're being followed." Ally concluded. Confused glances were cast on Ally, calling on her to deliberate. "It's the only way that can happen. Resident pokemon don't damage the dungeon walls or anything along them unless there's a battle."

I surveyed the path we were on. There didn't seem to be any damage to the walls or anything else that could've caused a tree to fall for the matter. "Wait a minute, I thought it was impossible for ordinary pokemon to even touch things on top of dungeon walls."

Ally sighed. "That's what's worrying me. All of these dungeons we've been through lately are a bit...different than the ones I used to enter back near Pokemon Square. It's as if they've changed in nature..."

"Oh come on. Dungeons change all the time. There's no way someone could follow us." Eve argued a bit impatiently.

"Still true. Unless this dungeon is fading." I had a feeling that Ally had already lost Eve in all of this. She just sat there and blinked at her sister's statement. "My point is, the other dungeons might've been different, but to a small degree. I've seen destroyed walls in those dungeons. I think you might actually be able to climb over the wall here."

"Over the wall huh?" I said out loud. I released one of my vines from my shoulders and attempted to wrap it around one of the trees limbs. Surprised that it had worked, I quickly pulled myself up to the branch and released my grip. I found it strange how these vines acted as a part of my body, but shrugged it off and waved down at my teammates. "Hey! It's true. The wooded part is traversable as well!"

"So that's it huh?" Ally replied. "This dungeon must really be fading. If it does, the forest'll be left in tact but the shift in land structure will be dramatic, likely causing massive earthquakes. Hopefully that won't be too soon."

I jumped down, giving her a questioning look as I did so. "How do ya know this stuff anyway?"

"Lucario told me a long time ago. He's an old friend of my parents. He used to tell me all kinds of things about rescue work, dungeons and such. I guess I was just curious all the time." She explained.

Austin stood up. Eve's hit had left him sitting in the same pained position this whole time. It's lucky she hadn't knocked him out. "Well then, what are we doing just standing around here for? We still have a mission to complete. If someone is following us, we can deal with them when we get out of here. Just watch out for anything else like this, especially now that we can't trust the path's walls."

We all agreed and continued walking down the path. Nothing much else happened. We arrived on the next floor without much difficulty and kept moving. From then on, the rest of the dungeon was rather simple. A few resident pokemon showed up occasionally, only to get wiped out as Eve impatiently iron tailed them out of the way. Geez, she was not a pokemon you would want to mess with when angered or kept waiting...

**Dungeon End, Ally's POV:**

"So I suppose those are the apples that Chatot sent us for?" I asked out loud while staring straight up at the most enormous tree I had ever seen. Right at the top of said tree were the apples. They must be quite big if they could be viewed from here.

"Wow! That is one big tree! How do ya suppose we're gonna get those apples down from there huh?!" Eve asked me excitedly. I shook my head. How she could go from annoyed to impatient and then to excited I'll never know.

"I have no idea. Magic?" I suggested just as intense laughter was heard coming from behind the tree.

"Magic huh? Hah! That would be nice. But I think we have a more feasible plan." Said Skuntank in a boastful voice as he came out from behind the tree along with his two teammates.

"Aha! So you were following us!" Eve shouted at them, causing them to laugh yet again.

"Follow you? Heh, I think you better get your head checked kid. In case you haven't noticed, we got here before you did." Skuntank remarked.

"I'd hardly say that's sound evidence." Alex commented, making Skuntank sneer.

"Regardless, you four wanted to get those apples huh? Well I've got a foolproof plan to get them down from there. After I've carried it out, you guys can just grab then and be on your way." He laughed oddly before ramming his head into the side of the tree. I cringed slightly at the sound of the impact. Probably not the most healthy method, but quite a few apples fell down as a result.

"And there you go. Now hurry up and grab them. You certainly don't have all day." Skuntank suggested, but none of us moved.

"Yeah? And why should we trust you of all people? You're probably just gonna pull a fast one on the first person who walks up to pick them up and take them all for yourselves." Eve replied, not trusting them one bit.

"Hmm. Well it seems that yet again my teammates underestimated you." He said as he glared at both of them. "But that hardly matters now. We'll still be making off with those apples. Coffing!"

"Right Boss! The combo." Coffing said as he moved in front of Zubat. The...combo?

There wasn't much time to think though as we were immediately blasted with a huge cloud of noxious gas. I tried for the life of me not to inhale any as I jumped to the side and out of the gas's range, but from the sound of my coughing, I was pretty sure I had still done so. The gas cleared to reveal that I was the only one who had managed to avoid being knocked out by the attack. Meanwhile, Team Skull was busily collecting the Perfect Apples and stuffing them into their bags.

I tried to control my breathing, but the coughing wouldn't stop. Oh come on! Not now!

Team Skull had apparently heard me and turned around to meet my gaze, only for Skuntank to laugh. "Heh, so you managed to escape getting knocked out by the combo huh? It seems that you're having a bit of a problem with the effects of the gas however."

I looked over at his bag of perfect apples and tried to control my breathing once again. I had to get some of those. I focused my attention on zubat. He seemed to have some as well. I doubted he could've collected too many of them, but he was an easier target than Skuntank, especially in my state.

I forced my coughing down as much as I could and sprang straight towards Skuntank with a quick attack. When I was within range, I jumped just high enough to avoid Skuntank's slash attack before I kicked off of his head, sending me flying skyward towards Zubat. I began flipping in midair as I approached him, and when I was in range I slammed him in the head with a powerful iron tail. The attack sent him crashing to the ground in an instant as I flipped back and crashed on my stomach in front of him. The apple that had been in his bag fell out and landed right beside me. My coughing fit continued and the last thing I saw before I passed out was Skuntank and Coffing zipping off with their steal.

* * *

**Eve's POV:**

I woke with a start with the familiar feeling that something was wrong. "Ally!" I bolted straight up from my laying position and searched around frantically for Ally. Thankfully, I spotted her almost instantly. She was lying just inches from the tree near what looked to be Zubat and a rather large apple. I couldn't tell she was unconscious, but she was coughing uncontrollably. "Oh my Arceus! The gas!"

I searched around for Austin and found his bag. Ignoring his unconscious form, I rummaged through his bag until I found two items. An odd black box and Ally's inhaler. I frowned at the box and quickly stuffed it back inside before grabbing the inhaler and dashing to Ally's side. Opening her mouth, I quickly pushed the button that released the berry concoction and let her naturally inhale it.

Once she finally stopped coughing and her breathing returned to normal, I breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed onto my haunches. "Thank Arceus!" I let out in an exasperated tone.

Looking to my right, I saw the apple from before. "Did she actually fight for that apple in the middle of an asthma attack?" I glared at Zubat's unconscious form. 'What's with those jerks anyway?' I quickly stored the Perfect Apple in my treasure bag before focusing my attention bag on Ally.

"Why would she do that?" I marveled. I looked back at Austin. "Some help you were..." This was a great chance to pull a prank on him, but I decided it wasn't appropriate considering Ally's condition. No, I needed to make sure she was ok.

I got up and placed a paw on her forehead. "Good, no fever. She didn't inhale enough of the poison." Just to be safe, I pulled a pecha berry out of my bag and laid it next to me for when she woke up. The others had some with them, so they should be fine.

"Hmm, let's see...oh yeah! I have a reviver seed!" I exclaimed, pulling the said seed out of my bag. "Now let's see, how do you use these?" I pondered for a second before it hit me. I took the berry between my paws and smashed it over Ally, letting the crushed seed particles sprinkle over her. The particles began to glow for a second before dying out. After a few seconds, Ally let out a gasp and sat up in a hurried manor.

"Heh, someone's eager to wake up." I laughed. Ally looked around in a confused manor.

"Eve?" She asked me, grabbing her head in slight pain. "What happened?"

"Sheesh, don't ask me. You're the one who took out Zubat over there and got us an apple." I explained. "Speaking of that." I raised my paw and bonked her over the head with it, but not nearly as hard as I did Austin. "That's for endangering your life for some stupid apples. Don't you EVER do that again. You hear me?"

"Oww! I got it Eve. I'm sorry. I-" She tried to finish, but I interrupted her with a hug.

"All the same, thank you..." I smiled. We separated and Ally looked up at the tree.

"Still, I don't think Chatot'll be happy with just one apple. Guess we'll just have to go with it." She looked over at Austin and Alex. "So, do ya have any more reviver seeds?" She asked me whilst taking a bite of the pecha berry I had laid out.

"Nope." I sighed. "Looks like we're carrying 'em back. Come on Ally." We got up, retrieved our fallen comrades, and teleported back home.

* * *

**11:30am, Treasure Town, Esuna's POV:**

It had been about an hour and a half since we had separated, and Luke still couldn't decide what to do for our date. I had decided earlier to let him choose instead of immediately going with the café because I found his nervous attempts quite cute. Plus, there were many different places that I hadn't really thought about. Treasure town was a very popular traveling destination for many reasons, not just for its guild. The market district was teaming full of shops of many kinds. Of course there was the keckleon shop, but there was also a select stand for bows (where I was sure Eve had gotten her bow), a flower shop run by a roselia, a few jewelry shops, and a couple snack stands. There were several more dotted around the market, but they were too far off to see. To my left, I saw a restaurant that I hadn't noticed before. I wasn't all too surprised though. I had just arrived only a short time ago.

Luke took a nervous glance at the restaurant before quickly turning away again. I giggled a bit at the action. He didn't have to try so hard... "Hey listen, Luke. You don't have to-"

"Watch out!" Someone shouted. We stopped and looked around, but came up with nothing.

"Luke, did you hear something?" I asked him just as something blue came crashing down on top of him. I just stood there and gaped. 'Did someone just fall from the sky?'

"Ugh...wow. That wasn't nearly as painful as I thought it would be." The person said as he stood up. He was indeed blue, the perfect image of a riolu, and I knew just who he was.

"Riley?!" I exclaimed. "What the heck are you doing falling out of the sky?! You just crushed my boyfriend!" I complained, as if falling out of the sky was an every day occurrence.

He looked at me a little dazed. "Huh? Oh, hey Esuna! What're you doing in Treasure Town? Speaking of which, never forget to tip a driffblim. They don't take too kindly to it." He rubbed his head in pain, looking skyward. Well at least that explained the fall.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. We can catch up later. Just get off of him!" I shouted at him, making quick waving motions with my paws.

He looked down and gasped. "What the?! Oh Arceus! Sorry!" His surprise caused him to flip backwards onto his back. "Ugh... Not again..."

I stared at him expectantly. "Well. Help him up already."

Riley jumped straight up and helped Luke to his feet. "Sorry about that." He apologized.

Luke smiled. "No, it's fine." He acknowledged. "So Esuna. You know this guy?"

"Yeah. He was a student of my father for a while. We were great friends." I replied. "I don't know what he's doing here though. He said he was joining a rescue team."

Riley held up his paw. "Actually I did, but shortly after the leader decided to leave for Treasure Town to form an exploration team. Half of the team was left to the rescue base to run it while they were gone. We have a lot of members on our side now, so I decided to come here. I hope Austin doesn't mind..."

"Austin? Wait a minute. Are you saying that you joined Team Eviolite?" I asked him in surprise.

"Heh, yep! You wouldn't believe how I met them. See there was this girl named Eve, and-"

I slapped him on the shoulder. "Hey teammate!" I smiled. He just stood there looking dumb.

"Teammate? What're you talking about? I'm not forming a team with you."

"Actually Riley, that's not entirely true. You see, that girl you talked about, Eve. She's my sister, and Austin is our team leader. We're part of Team Eviolite." Luke explained for him.

"Hmm?" Riley blinked for a second, as if trying to process this new information. "Oh cool! That means I'll be on the same team as you Esuna. So do you know where Austin is or what?"

I laughed at his utter lack of surprise. He could be so dense at times. "Well he and the others went on missions. We're not sure when they'll be back, but you can find the guild by heading off in that direction and turning left when you come to some crossroads. You can wait for them there."

"Uhh, why can't I just hang out with you guys?"

Knowing that he wouldn't leave me alone if I didn't, I sighed and let him have it. "We're on a date Riley. Ya kinda crashed right into it."

Riley gazed between us with a look of jovial amusement. "Hah! You got a boyfriend?!" He laughed. "So you do have a girly side!"

I wasn't nearly as amused as he was. "Hmm, yeah. How's it going with that 'Soul' girl you were telling me about in your letters?" I smirked.

His face lit up red like a cheri berry. "T-that's not the same thing!" He sighed and looked away from us.

I tilted my head. 'Is he upset?' "Umm, hey Riley. I'm sorry if I-"

"No, it's fine." He sighed. I looked at him oddly before turning to Luke and whispering in his ear.

"(I think we should go with him to the guild. We can have this date some other time. I promise.)" I whispered as I kissed him on the cheek. He nodded and I turned back to Riley.

"Alright Riley. Let's go to the guild." I smiled.

"Huh? You're coming? I thought you guys had a date."

I shrugged. "The guild probably won't let you stay if you don't have a reason to be there. We can just reschedule the date. It's no problem."

Riley's mood changed for the better at the idea. "Ok then. Guess that makes sense. Let's go!" He exclaimed, running off in the wrong direction.

I sighed. "Riley, wait!" I laughed. "Guild's this way!"

* * *

**Wigglytuff's Guild, Austin's POV:**

Perhaps the most awkward place to wake up is riding on the back of your girlfriend. I came to as Ally and Eve were making their way up the steps to the guild. The oddity of the location sent a jolt of surprise through my body, nearly sending me tumbling off of Ally's back and down the stairs.

"Ally?" I muttered. She turned to me and smiled.

"Heh, morning sleepy head. You were out for a while." She laughed. I gave her a baffled expression in return, only to receive more of her joyful giggles. "We got skunked, remember?"

My eyes widened. "Wait a minute! Did you have a-?!" She shook her head to make me stop.

"Eve woke up and gave me my inhaler. I'm fine. You can tell that, right?" I sighed. At least Eve knew how to work the thing, though she did say they used to have one before they got separated from their parents.

"That's good at least. Oh! Did you manage to get any apples?"

"Well...kinda. See, I only managed to knock down Zubat in my coughing fit, soooo we have one." She laughed. I seriously doubted that Chatot would be laughing-wait a minute...

"In your coughing fit? You tried to fight them when you were having an asthma attack?!"

"Well...yeah. Pretty much. Yeah." She replied casually, which didn't really help much. "I didn't want to let Eve down ya know?"

I sighed. "Guess so..." I guess I really wouldn't understand a sibling bond like they do. All I had was Thomas and, well, I couldn't even remember being his brother in the first place, much less getting along with him.

"Ok, I think I can walk by myself now." I announced as I slid off of Ally's back. I frowned when I saw that Alex had already done so. He probably woke up before me...

I shrugged it off as we entered the guild headed for Wigglytuff's chamber.

* * *

**Wigglytuff's Guild, Second Ground Floor:**

"What?! You only managed to get one?!" Chatot was literally flying around the room in a flustered panic. "How can I possibly tell the guildmaster that we only have one Perfect Apple?! This isn't good!" He turned to us with a frustrated look on his face. "You four will accompany me when we present this failure to the guildmaster this evening. I'm not just gonna take the heat for this on my own!"

I shivered at the thought of Wigglytuff getting angry. Everyone seemed to be deathly scared of angering or upsetting him. It didn't exactly sound like a pleasant experience.

"But Chatot, we would've gotten more if Team Skull hadn't-"

"Oh no. Don't try to pass blame on another team for your failure! At this point, you should just give up on being chosen for the expedition! With the gravity of this mission, more care should've been put into making sure it was successful, and I'm certain that Wigglytuff won't take too kindly to having a shortage of his favorite food!"

I heard Eve gasp at Chatot's last statement and turned to see her eyes filled with tears. Immediately I felt feelings of anger and frustration well up inside my chest as I closed my eyes and clenched my fist. Chatot probably kept talking about our 'failure', but at that point I stopped listening.

"Shut up..." I muttered angrily as he kept talking. I clenched my fist tighter. "Shut up..." I said a bit louder, though he still continued. "Shut up!" I shouted, opening my eyes and glaring at Chatot as the two words echoed around the room, uninterrupted by the silence that accompanied them.

Chatot stared at me in utter disbelief. "Excuse me?!"

I let out a frustrated sigh. "So we failed. Who cares? It's the first time we've ever done so, and I'm not just gonna stand around while you make one of my teammates cry!" My fist was still clinched tightly at my side. "Now you can punish us however you want, but you cannot tell Eve to give up on this expedition! We may just be recruits here, but this is MY team, and that's not ok with me!"

If Chatot was flustered before, he was a lot worse now. "Uhh ahem, well then. You've certainly made your case haven't you?" He shook nervously. "Very well then, we'll just leave the deciding up to the guildmaster. After all, that is his job."

Chatot rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Ya know, maybe it wouldn't be such a great idea to have so many people in the room when Wigglytuff throws a fit... Fine, you are dismissed." He gave in. "And you two...go take a shower. Seriously, what were you doing out there?" He shook his head and flew off.

Eve had hence then stopped crying. "You ok Eve?"

She looked at me appreciatively. "Yeah. Thanks for that..."

"Eh, no problem. It's my job to help you guys... Now let's hurry up and head for home before I have to help again."

They all looked at me dully. "Gee, thanks..."

"Kidding, kidding... Seriously though, we should be going. Chatot's right about the shower part." I laughed, noting Alex and Eve as I made my way towards the ladder when suddenly Luke and Esuna came sliding down it along with a vaguely familiar riolu.

"Hmm...?" I scanned the riolu for a second. "Wait a minute, aren't you that riolu that nearly kicked a hole in our rescue base?"

The riolu looked towards me and smiled widely. "Hah! So ya do remember me!"

I rubbed the back of my neck. "Well...kinda. Eheheh... Riley was it? So, you're here to join the team right?" I assumed.

He seemed rather eager, so I assumed he had something he was excited about. Plus, nobody from our base back in Pokemon Square comes here for any reason other than that... "Well of course! I didn't risk my life with a moody driffblim and crush Luke for no reason. I wanted to see what the rest of the team was up to."

"Mmm...fine. But don't go around kicking our new home. The owners could prove more moody than those driffblim."

Ally gave me a questionable look. "Are you saying my mother is moody?"

I shrugged. "No. I'm saying your father is moody." I said bluntly.

Ally sighed. "Oh come on. Give him a break. He's just looking out for me."

I shrugged. "I guess so..."

"Oh yeah! Ally! Your last name is Grace right?!" Riley asked out of the blue.

Ally nodded. "Uh yeah. Why?"

"Well here's something cool! Esuna's parents are-" Esuna nervously slapped her paw over his mouth, which apparently irritated him as he immediately slapped it away. "Hey! What gives Esuna?! I was about to tell Ally that your parents are Lucario and Ninetales! Thanks for the slap! Geez..."

Esuna slapped her own face with her paw as all of the attention was drawn to her. "Rrgh! Riley! I told you that was a secret!"

"Huh? Oh yeah! Eheheh... Sorry!"

I stared at Esuna, suddenly remembering our time as fugitives where we fought Articuno and Moltres. How we had somehow made it to Ninetale's place without getting caught by Team ACT. She had set me free from the accusations of the Ninetales legend...and she was the mother of one of my teammates? And what's this about Lucario?!

Ally held up her paw as if to silence a voice that wasn't there. "Wait a minute. Hold on! Your parents are who?! Lucario was always around us. He used to visit us when we were little. We never saw you or Ninetales."

Esuna shook her head quietly. "You're wrong. My dad brought me along with him when he visited your parents so I could play with you and Eve. We were friends, even back then..." Esuna lifted up her scarf slightly. "This scarf is something that I always brought with me. It's my mother's. I left it with your mother by accident the last time I was there. She just recently returned it to me at the tournament."

"Oh. So that explains why you were looking at my mom like she was some goddess or something. I thought you had just zoned out or something."

Eve, well, like usual she took to less conventional reactions. She pounced onto her, nearly pinning her to the ground in her fit of excitement. "I remember you now! You always tried to take the flower out of my hair when we were little!"

Esuna laughed a bit. "Yeah. I suppose I did. I wouldn't think that would excite you though. In fact, it made you pretty mad."

I turned toward a very distracted Riley and snapped to get his attention. "Ok Riley, we can get you registered with the guild later. I think we've ticked off Chatot enough today. It's time to head home."

"Alright I guess. I'm not exactly in a hurry."

'Coming from the guy who fell out of a drifblim service taxi...' I turned back to the others. "Oh, that's right. Esuna, you haven't seen Ella or Shard since joining our team. I don't even think they know you joined."

"No. I made sure to keep a low profile until I got used to seeing them. I was trying to keep the secret, which obviously failed."

"Right. Well I think we've had enough of the guild for today. Let's head home and take a break for the rest of the day."

Ally tapped my shoulder. "Umm Austin, but what about Flare and the others?"

I waved it off, making my way towards the ladder. "They can just meet us there. They'll be fine."

* * *

**2:00pm, Grace Family House:**

"Or they could report to Chatot and get majorly scolded... That works too..."

"Yeah, thanks a lot for the warning Austin. What did you guys do anyway? It's not like we were the culprits." Flare complained as she and the rest of our team arrived at the house.

"We failed a mission. Not really much to get upset about, but he freaked out." I shrugged. "Anyway, how'd your missions go?"

Flare shook her head. "Never mind that. Wigglytuff had a major fit in his chamber just moments before we got there. Apparently it was really bad. Chatot told us that it was because he only had one Perfect Apple, then he scolded us for no reason and sent us off. The others described hearing explosions coming from his chamber though. Apparently there was also and indoor earthquake."

"So Wigglytuff threw that big a fit huh? Man, those must be some pretty good apples." I walked over to the side of the room and laid back against one of the walls. "Just how strong is that guy anyway?"

"Oh you have no idea." Esuna warned, looking up from a spell book just as Ella walked in the door. Her attitude changed almost immediately, nearly akin to that of Eve when she got too excited. "Ella!" She exclaimed, running up to her and hugging her tightly.

"Hmm?" Ella sounded, seemingly not yet grasping who had so suddenly clung onto her. "Esuna? What are you doing here? You shouldn't be..." Looking up, Ella noticed Riley and cracked a small smile. "Riley told everyone, didn't he?"

"Yeah. That knucklehead never really could keep a secret." Esuna replied whilst maintaining a joyous gaze up at Ella, as if she were a second mom to her. At least it seemed that way. They certainly had some sort of special bond.

"But there's something I can't figure out." Everyone turned their attention to me, probably wondering what I was talking about. "Esuna. Why is the fact that your parents are Lucario and Ninetails such a big secret? I mean, I know it's pretty surprising, knowing that they're such important people and all, but I don't really see much point in hiding it."

Esuna released Ella, looking to her as if asking her to elaborate for her. Ella sighed and sat down. "Austin, I'm sure you're very familiar with the legend revolving around Ninetales, correct?"

"Yeah, of course. I was accused of being a heartless coward because of it. How could I not?" I replied, remembering the not so pleasant experience of being hated by basically everyone.

"Well in this case it's similar to what you experienced. Barely anyone knows that Ninetales has a daughter. If people were to find out about it, it wouldn't be well received. You see, there are already very negative opinions wrapped up in that legend. In fact, most people are afraid of or at least have some fear of Ninetales herself. She turned someone into a pokemon and sent them here, which at this point is unheard of at a worldly standpoint. People fear what they don't understand, and if they knew who Esuna was, they might fear her too. It's just like the reason magic is hidden from the normal world."

I nodded. It did make sense, but it didn't mean that I agreed with it. "But what about Lucario?"

This time Esuna stepped up. "That's easy. If people knew I was related to someone so important, they'd never leave me alone."

"Ok. So when do you get to spend time with your parents? They must at least get to do that."

Esuna hung her head low. "I haven't seen my mom in years. You see, when the legendary council appointed her as the guardian of nature, the natural disasters had just begun to appear, so she was sent far off into the mountains in seclusion so she could help guide the coming hero. That's just how it worked out. I've been told recently that she's been allowed to leave, but I guess she just hasn't been able to get to me yet. I don't really see my dad too often anymore either. After Shade made his move, Ella and Shard had to leave, so I went back and forth between my father and Marowak. I ended up in Treasure Town when Marowak decided to build a training dojo here and my dad recommended that I go along."

Looks like Ally and Eve weren't the only ones with parent trouble. This kind of stuff couldn't have been easy to talk about.

Luke looked at her emphatically while patting her on the back. "At this point, I just want them together again, ya know? With me..." She sounded as if she could cry at any minute.

"Alright, I think you've talked enough about this for one day sweetie. You should go relax and calm down for the rest of the day." Ella stopped her, worrying that letting her continue would only bring on an outburst of sorrow.

Esuna nodded as she and Luke started towards their room.

"Oh and Eve, sweetie?" Ella called out to Eve as she was about to leave. "You and Alex might want to take a shower first." She laughed.

I looked in Esuna's direction as she left with Luke. "Well then, if it's relaxation time. Ella, do you have any spell books over-"

She smiled. "Of course. Right this way."

* * *

**Three days later, 8:00am, Grace Family House, Eve's POV:**

"Expedition day! Hahaha! Alex! Common, wake up!" I shouted at the top of my lungs as I pounced on top of my best friend. The only problem with that was that I accidentally pushed him off as I did so. We both tumbled off of the bed and landed on the floor. I looked up to see that he had ended up on top of me. The tip of his nose was touching mine, which didn't help the situation at all. "Oh...eheheh. Oops..."

Alex laughed. "You just have to make every morning awkward don't ya?" I blushed like mad as he picked himself up, helping me up in the process. "I'm starting to think you actually make an effort to do this stuff." He teased, which only made it worse.

"I uh, well... Just got excited..." 'Ugh, now he's teasing me...' I sighed and lowered my head slightly. "Hey Alex...listen. There's umm...something I want to tell you."

Alex crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Sure. What's on your mind?"

"W-well I, uhh. It's just that I umm..." I looked up at him and my face burned with heat. "Alex, I-"

"Hey Alex! Eve! Hurry it up in there! We need to leave for the guild soon!" Austin shouted from outside the room. I mentally cursed, my previous courage having all but left me.

"We'll be out in a minute!" Alex shouted back at him. "Now. What was it you were about to say?"

I blushed again and dropped my head slightly. "O-oh, umm... I-I was going to say that I was really excited for the expedition today! Yeah, that's it! Eheheheh..."

Alex looked at me oddly. "Oh. Ok, if you're sure." 'What? If I'm sure? What exactly did that mean?' "Let's head out then."

Alex walked past me to pick up our treasure bag and open the door. "Alex, wait!"

He turned around, looking at me inquisitively. "Yeah?"

"I..." I let out a sigh. "Alex? Am I...annoying to you?"

Alex looked surprised by my question as he stepped back from the door. "What? Annoying? Eve, what would make you think that?"

I fidgeted with my paws a bit. "Well, you know. I tend to run ahead of the group when I'm excited, or I jump on top of people, and I do kind of embarrass you sometimes..."

Alex's expression softened as he walked up and wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug. "Don't worry about that. You're fine." He assured me as he gently pat me on the back. "After all, you wouldn't be funny if you weren't like that." He released me, still holding one of my paws. "Now come on. I'm pretty sure we're pushing the limits on Austin's patients as we speak." He laughed. I smiled at him. 'Perhaps it is possible...'

We walked into the living room to find no one but Austin waiting impatiently by the door. 'Why that little!'

I slugged him on the head as hard as I could. "Seriously Austin?! This is what you rushed us for?! No one's even in here yet! Ugh, man if you only knew!"

"Agh! Hey! Would ya stop doing that?! I need my head ya know." He complained, painfully rubbing his head in the process. "Besides, I would've thought that you would want to hurry anyway, being that today is when they choose the members for the expedition and all."

He was correct as usual. I was excited. Not much had happened in the last few days besides Riley being registered with the guild. It was refreshing knowing that something exciting was about to happen.

"Well yeah, but...ya know what, never mind. So what's taking the others so long? We have to meet Evelyn at the guild for the test don't we?"

"Evelyn?" Apparently Mom was also in the living room. I must've missed her while I was busy dealing with Austin. "Who's this Evelyn you have to meet?"

"Oh, morning Mom! I was just talking about the explorer we have to meet to help us prepare for our patrol test." Suddenly I remembered something Evelyn had said to me three days ago. "Oh yeah, she kinda mentioned you the last time we saw her. She didn't say your name though. Do you know her from somewhere?"

Mom didn't seem to have heard me though. Something seemed to be distracting her. "Mom? You ok?"

"Hmm? Oh uhh, yes sweetie. I'm fine." She assured. "So, you're being tested for patrol today? That's a bit early from what I've heard. Wigglytuff must've take a liking to you."

I shrugged. "Well I guess so... I'm definitely not on Chatot's side. I just hope I get to go on this expedition. It'd be so awesome to solve a mystery."

Mom smiled. "I'm sure you'll be fine. Wigglytuff's not an orthodox thinker."

Apparently Austin had gotten tired of waiting, so he used the gathering spell (Glaner) to teleport the others into the living room.

Austin shook his head. "You guys really have to stop taking so long. Even Eve made it here before you."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?! I'm not always late!" I retorted.

"Well no...you're just the example. Anyway, I'm pretty sure we're supposed to be at the guild early today for the patrol test. It wouldn't look real impressive if we were late."

I was about to give him another blow, but Alex stopped me with a gentle hand on my shoulder. "He's right. They're testing us based on our ability to handle the tasks of professional explorers. Fooling around when there's something important to do isn't quite professional, don't you agree? Who's to say they wouldn't fail us from the start if we were late? And even if they didn't, we can't do this every day. It won't get us anywhere as a team."

I looked down slightly, suddenly feeling a bit guilty. 'Guess he is just looking out for the team... But why does he have to have such bad timing?'

"Exactly." Austin agreed. "Whelp, it won't do us any good just standing here. Let's go meet up with Evelyn. She should be somewhere around the guild."

"Ugh. You're too slow Austin! Hurry up!" I yelled as I proceeded to push the electric mouse out the door as fast as I could.

"What? Hey! I didn't mean we had to-oh never mind-aagh! Not my head again..."

"Sorry! Eheheh."

* * *

**Wigglytuff's Guild, 2nd Ground Floor:**

'Ok, so perhaps I might have slid down the ladders a bit too quickly...' Those were my thoughts as I lie bruised on the floor alongside Mari, whom I had just crashed into on the way down.

"Ugh... Eve, word of advice. As a quadruped, when going down ladders, NEVER SLIDE!" Mari complained.

"Hey! Sliding down ladders is the only way I can go down them! You try seeing the rungs past this bush of a tail!"

Mari sighed. "You can win a battle tournament yet you can't climb down a ladder. You Eviolite people are an interesting bunch."

"Why if it isn't Eve?" Said a familiar voice off to our right. I looked to see Evelyn walking up to us from Wigglytuff's chamber. "Where's the rest of your team?"

I looked behind me and then up the ladder, only to come up with nothing. I shrugged. "I don't know. I could've sworn they were right behind me."

Evelyn laughed. "You ran ahead of them didn't you? I've been told you were the excitable one."

I looked at her inquiringly. "You've been told?" I reiterated. "Who told you about me?"

Then, it was as if a balloon had popped in her ear. Her eyes widened quickly with surprise as she began looking around anxiously. "U-uhh, well...Wigglytuff told me! Yeah! He talks about you a lot! Eheheh..."

I produced a baffled look. "He does?" I asked. "That's so awesome! Haha! I knew I was on his good side!"

Evelyn have a faint smile at my reaction. "Anyway, that's obviously not why we're here, so why don't we give your teammates some time to get here and then we'll talk?" She suggested. "By the way, I've selected the help of Mari here to go with you as you take part in this test. Just so we don't have any trouble."

"Wait a minute. So Mari's gonna go on patrol with us? Why her?"

"Because I have a feeling you could learn something from her. This test is for learning remember?" Evelyn reminded me.

I sighed. "Fine." There wasn't much talking after that. We took a few minutes to wait for the others, and when they came, Evelyn jumped straight to the explanation.

"Alright, the four of you who will be partaking in the test, please listen up. As I said yesterday, you will be heading on a route through three towns; Trello Town, Auburn Town, and Castello Town. While on this route, you will complete any and all requests given to you by those who approach you along the way. The only exception to this is a request that would take you too far out of your route. Normally this would be ok, but for a test, we don't want this lasting longer than it has to. If one of these cases does arise while you are away, tell the client to write down their request and hand it to you. Then bring it back to the guild and post it on the request bulletin. Another team will take care of it after that." Evelyn explained. We nodded in agreement. "Oh and one more thing. Whether you pass or fail will be determined based on your ability to handle successive requests on a more expansive playing field, and whether you can do so without the aid of prepared supplies and a full team."

"Alright then. You pointed out the locations of the towns on our map yesterday. I think I have our route clearly mapped out." Alex affirmed. "I'd say we're ready."

Austin nodded in approval and turned to the others. "Alright Flare. You're in charge of the others while we're gone. Go confirm with Chatot to see what you should be doing and we'll catch up as soon as we get back."

Flare nodded in agreement and walked towards Wigglytuff's chamber with the others. "Alright guys. Let's get going show we?"

* * *

**Grace Family House, Ella's POV:**

After everyone had left for the guild, I decided to head for the library to read for a bit. Occasionally I would pop in and out of that stuffy collection room, usually when Shard was out of the house or I just got bored and wanted to study. Even though I had collected quite a few books over the years, I hadn't quite found the time to read all of them. I guess all this time I've just been too worried about Ally and Eve to really get into anything. I sighed. 'Guess I don't really need to worry too much anymore.'

On my way to the back of the library, I accidentally bumped into one of the shelves. Luckily, the impact hadn't been enough to topple anything over or knock all of the books off of the shelf, but when I looked down, I saw something that I hadn't seen in ages. It was a slightly worn scrapbook with a small wedge missing off of one of its corners. I picked it up with my ribbons and dusted it off a bit before carrying it over to a desk and sitting down.

Opening the book, I flipped to the first page, revealing what appeared to be a photo of two eevee playing together in a field of golden colored flowers. Both eevee looked exactly the same. They seemed so joyful...

I gently placed my paw on the photograph between the two eevee. Then, with the closing of my eyes, I let a lone tear slide down my face and drop onto the page. "Evelyn..."

* * *

**Route to Trello Town, Austin's POV:**

"Trello Town is in the sky?! That's sooo cool!" Eve exclaimed as we made our way towards the driffblim air-port.

Mari shook her head. "Of course it is ya weirdo. Trello Town is the central post office for the entire continent, so they have to be somewhere where there's little land interference, and most mail is delivered by flying type pokemon anyway. It's supposedly one of the most beautiful towns in the area."

"Hey! Who're you callin' a weirdo?!" Eve snapped in response.

"The one who claims she's gonna be the best explorer but knows very little about the world around her."

"What?! Hey! I know plenty thank you very much! I'm an expert on dungeons. Besides, I don't need to know those kinds of details to be the best. I decided long ago that I was going to be the best explorer, and I won't quit until I am."

"Heh, whatever you say."

"Well one thing's for sure. At least we didn't bring Riley along. We don't want to go skydiving or anything." I laughed.

"What're you talking about?! That'd be so awesome! It'd be such a rush!" Eve exclaimed, jumping up and down like a spoink. "Why can't we do that stuff?!"

"Because we don't want to die." Ally answered bluntly. "Eve, do you even know how to work a parachute?"

"Ugh. Why do you have to bring safety into this? It's so boring..." Eve complained.

"You don't want to die do you?" Her sister pointed out.

"No..." She gave up. "But I still want to do that some day-ooh look, the building!" She exclaimed, running off towards the drifblim air-port, which was now in clear view.

Alex laughed. "Man. It's always something with that girl." He quickly ran after her, this time matching her speed. "Hey Eve! Wait up!"

I shook my head. "He might just be able to handle her if he keeps that up."

Mari laughed. "Wait a minute. Are you seriously implying that that level headed snivy is interested in that total weirdo of an eevee?"

"Well, she does need someone to balance out all of that energy." I laughed. "They've both told us, so it's pretty much official, but they're so awkward about it. We're waiting for the right moment to...'assist'."

Ally pulled ahead and turned around. "I think we should go ahead and catch up to them. I'm not exactly sure how capable Alex is right now."

"Yeah, good point...let's hurry then."

Drifblim air port:

"Wow! It's kind of...boring here..." Eve announced as we were waiting on a drifblim to show up to take us to Trello Town.

"Well what'd you expect Eve? It's an airport." Ally pointed out. Eve just sighed and laid her head down on the armrest next to her, only to realize that Alex was in the seat next to her and she had accidentally leaned against his shoulder.

Eve immediately jerked up, her face as red as a cheri berry. "Oh! U-umm...s-sorry Alex! Eheheh..."

Alex looked confused. "Hmm, sorry? Sorry about what?"

"Oh...well I kinda leaned against you and uhh-" She started to explain, but was silenced yet again when Alex put his arm around her and pulled her back to the position she was previously in.

"There's nothing to be sorry about. I don't mind this." He said casually, ignoring the huge blush that had spread over his best friend's face.

I laughed internally at the scene. 'Heh, looks like he's getting back at her for all of the flirting.'

"Y-you don't? O-o-okay. Eheheh..." Eve said dreamily. Then she smiled, closing her eyes and seemingly falling asleep.

"Hah! Wow. You are good..." Mari complemented.

Alex just waved it off. "I'm just trying to calm her down. Plus..." A small blush crept onto his face. "...her fur's kinda soft..."

"Right...well it looks like you're gonna have to carry her if you want to keep her calmed down. The drifblim just arrived." I pointed out, noting the purple balloon-shaped pokemon that had just landed at the port labeled "To Trello Town".

Alex rubbed the back of his neck out of embarrassment. "Heh, yeah... Guess I didn't really think this out. Alright then." He lifted the sleeping eevee out of her seat, careful not to wake her up. "Let's go before the drifblim leaves."

* * *

**11:00am, Trello Town:**

After about a two hour flight across fields, mountains and a couple of lakes, a huge mass of clouds came into view on the horizon. It looked kind of like the kind of clouds that made up the land that Ally and I had traveled on before to get to Raquaza.

"Wait. Is that-?"

"Yep. That's Trello Town. It was built on a foundation of massive, densely packed clouds high up in the atmosphere. Since these clouds are so densely packed, they can be used as a very stable surface to walk on and even build on." Mari explained.

"I'm starting to get why Evelyn chose you to supervise our test. You know a lot about these towns."

Mari produced a nervous smile. "Eheheh, well. I've travelled around before, ya know?" I frowned at her, but decided to drop my suspicions. Whatever she was nervous about was her business.

"Well I guess that's a good way to learn about places..." I turned to Alex and Eve. Surprisingly, Eve had managed to sleep comfortably in Alex's arms the entire trip. Maybe they didn't need as much help as I thought...

"She's gonna be the best huh?" Mari asked rhetorically. "She certainly has the energy for it, I'll give her that."

I laid back against the edge of the basket. "Well, as long as she's this determined I don't see why she can't be. It's her dream after all, and Eve's about as hard headed as a craniados using rock smash."

"Wow, a town in the clouds! That's so awesome! Hahah! Let's go!" Eve shouted excitedly, suddenly wide awake and right beside me. "Ugh. This is taking forever... Maybe I could jump to that cloud-"

'Wait, what?!' I looked up quickly, only to find that she wasn't in the basket. "Oh come on!"

"Yahoo! Hahaha!" Eve shouted from behind me. I turned just in time to see her dive straight down. I hurriedly looked over the edge of the basket to see what was below us and saw a collection of small clouds. They were close enough to land on and were close to the town, but if she missed...

"Austin, out of the way!" Alex shouted as he ran past me with his bow and jumped out of the basket as well.

* * *

**Alex's POV:**

'Ugh, what am I going to do with that girl?' Those were my thoughts as I dove straight down after Eve, who was about to miss her intended landing point and plummet to her death. Luckily, she had chosen to jump out skydiving-style, so I could catch up to her with a nose-dive. Once I was within reach, I wrapped my arms around her firmly and quickly flipped over. Once in position, I hurriedly released one of my vines and tied it as best I could to an arrow before setting it in the bow, aiming at the bottom of the basket, and launching it. We continued to fall for a bit as my vine was pulled straight up by the arrow's momentum. Suddenly our falling came to an abrupt stop as the arrow struck the basket and embedded itself in the thick material.

I panted a bit from anxiety and relief before looking at the clearly terrified eevee in my arms. It was apparent that she realized she had missed her mark. It was for that reason that I decided not to confront her for it. "Eve, it's ok. I've got you. The basket'll carry us to that cloud and we'll drop down to it." I sighed. "I've got you..."

She looked up at me gratefully. "Thank you..." She thanked me. "Heh, guess I've got to work on my aim huh?" She smiled.

I laughed. "Yeah, just not without a parachute ok? I need my best friend alive ya know. I don't really want to explain to your parents that I lost you to reckless driffblim-diving."

The drifblim carried us safely over the cloud a few seconds later. First I checked to see if the cloud could support us before tugging on my vine. The arrow pulled loose from the basket and we fell down safely onto the soft, fluffy cloud. When my vine retracted, I quickly grabbed it and untied it, throwing the arrow to the side. It would've been pretty bad if I hadn't done that, I would guess.

I let out a quick gasp when Eve hugged me tightly around the neck and proceeded to happily nuzzle my face. "Alex that was so awesome! Thank you! You're the most amazing friend ever!" She exclaimed, as if I had given her a gift or something. I smiled at how soft her fur felt against my face, but then blushed at the thought of it. She quickly pulled back, as if finally realizing what she was doing. Her face was as red as ever.

"Oh, uhh. Sorry..." She muttered, not even daring to look at me. I however decided to act my way out of it.

I laughed. "Haha, well you're certainly more excited for this patrol stuff than I thought. I never expected you to actually jump out of a drifblim." I stood up, dusting myself off and offering her and hand in the process. She accepted it and I helped her up. "Now, how about we make our way up to the town. Quickly before we loose our head start. Hmm?" I offered.

Eve was about to reply, but was cut off when a staraptor dropped out of the sky nearest the town and landed just short of us. He looked pretty irritated. "Hey, hey! What's up with the crazy stunt you guys pulled huh?! We guardians can't see everything that falls out of the sky ya know."

Eve seemed rather unamused by the newcomer's scolding, as she gave him blank stares. "Yeah? So who are you anyway? It's kinda impolite to drop in like that and criticize us."

"Wha-rude?! Excuse me, but you're being awfully showy yourself." He complained.

I looked him up and down. "This town has guardians? Mari didn't tell us about that."

The staraptor sighed. "Well of course it does. How do you think we keep people from falling out of the sky near this town? That of course includes those crazy enough to actually jump for 'thrills'." He said pointedly at us. "Surprisingly we've only had one other case besides the two of you."

I looked to Eve to find her quietly snickering. "Haha! You call it crazy. Those who've never tried anything risky in their lives often think so." She laughed. "And it's not thrill seeking. Not with me. I simply got bored of waiting for the drifblim to land so I figured I'd just jump for this cloud. I'm not too fond of waiting to explore places, and you can't be the best if you're afraid to take risks."

The staraptor looked taken aback for a moment, as if lost in thought. "Anyway, if that's all you had to say to us, we've got a town to explore." Eve made an attempt to pass him, but he blocked her path.

"Hold up. You two belong to an exploration team don't you? And I suppose those guys up there are your teammates?" He pointed skywards towards the still moving drifblim.

I crossed my arms in front of my chest. "Yeah, why?"

"Well it's not really a requirement, but our town elder really respects the work exploration teams do. In fact, he tells us to inform him if any explorers do come into town so he can personally meet them. He's quite the odd one you could say, but he does this so much that it's become quite a custom. Might I ask if you would come with me to do so? I'll give you and your friends a ride of course."

Eve looked hyped. "Wait, so does that mean we can start exploring right away?! Come on then! Let's meet this old guy!"

I sighed at Eve's quick and questionably rude response. "Why not? I don't think our leader would mind. We are on patrol anyway, so I suppose this would make for our first request."

The staraptor chuckled. "Alright then, go ahead and climb onto my back. The name's Aero by the way."

We both did as instructed. "Heh, nice to meet ya Aero. I'm Eve and this is Alex. We're part of Team Eviolite." Eve introduced.

Aero nodded back at us. "I should probably send that drifblim back as well, considering I'm gonna be picking up his passengers a bit early." He commented before taking off towards the balloon pokemon.

* * *

**Austin's POV:**

"Austin, do you see them?!" Ally asked me worriedly as she anxiously surveyed the airspace below us, hoping to find a trace of Alex and Eve. Several times I had to grab her from behind so she didn't accidentally fall over the edge of the basket. The last thing I needed was for her to fall.

Suddenly a staraptor shot up in front of us, making me fall backwards into my back in surprise. "Hey! Austin, Ally, Mari! Get on! This guy says he's gonna take us to see the town's elder!" Shouted Eve from somewhere close.

I picked myself up and looked straight ahead to find Alex and Eve riding on the back of the staraptor. All three of us let out sighs of relief. "Uhh, ok. When did you meet that guy?"

"Eve! Don't you ever do that again! What were you thinking?!" Ally shouted at her, running up to the edge of the basket in frustration.

"Eheheh. Sorry..." She apologized. "Hurry up though. Let's go. I'm bored." She complained, prompting a quick laugh out of her sister.

"Mmm, fine. I never could stay mad at you anyway. You're too impatient and weird." Ally commented as she transferred from the drifblim to the staraptor. Mari and I hastily followed suit.

"Alright buddy. Here's a tip for your troubles. I'll be taking these guys the rest of the way." The staraptor said as he waved the drifblim off. He then took off on a course towards the town. "So I'm guessing you're the leader huh?" He asked, pointedly at me. "I'm Aero."

"Oh, uhh. Hey Aero. Great to meet you. But uhh, how did you know I was the leader?"

"Oh, you're energetic eevee friend told me that her leader was the pointy eared yellow guy, so I just assumed.

"What?! Pointy eared yellow guy?! That's the best you could come up with?!"

Eve shrugged. "What can I say? You're not all that interesting."

"Hey! I stood up for you ya know! The least you could do is respect me as your leader." I complained. "At least come up with a better nick name or something. Seriously, aren't we friends?"

Eve stuck out her tongue at me. "Someone's grouchy today." She teased. "Of course we're friends. It's not my fault you're boring."

"Will you guys knock it off?!" Ally intervened, but we continued arguing the entire ride over to the elder's residence.

* * *

**12:00pm, Elder's Residence:**

By the time we had reached our destination, we had gotten tired of fighting and declared a truce.

"Alright, I'm sorry ok? That was kinda mean." Eve apologized. "Ooh look, we're there!" She exclaimed as she bounded of of Aero.

I sighed. "And she's at it again." I hoped off of Aero as well. The others followed almost immediately after.

"The elder is just in that building." Aero informed us. "He's a pretty interesting pokemon. Ya can't miss him. Trust me."

I turned around and thanked him. "Thanks Aero! Hope we meet again!"

I turned back around as we proceeded to enter a huge dome-like structure made of clouds. Upon closer inspection, the dome seemed to have several openings all over it. 'This must be where the mail gets processed and sent out.'

As soon as we entered, it became apparent that today was an off day. The place was literally deserted. "Umm, hellooo! Old guy?!" Eve shouted. Her voice echoed up and down the empty halls, which was surprising since they were all made of clouds. I certainly hoped this elder didn't have a temper.

"Hey! Who are you calling old!? Teehee!" A voice suddenly rang out from seemingly nowhere. We all looked around for any sign of the owner, but came up with nothing. "I'm not a guy either, though I guess people do get the wrong idea when they hear me being called the elder." The voice chimed in again. "Oh yeah. I kinda forgot you couldn't see me. Sorry!" The voice apologized before a pink ball of light appeared in front of us. The ball of light eventually formed into a pokemon which I immediately recognized as Mew.

"What?! Mew?! You're Trello Town's elder?!" I asked in disbelief. Mew turned and looked at me awkwardly, as if confused by my sudden surprise.

"Hmm?" She smiled. "Oh, well look who we have here. Teehee! It's our little meteor hero."

"Ugh. Am I gonna always be known as 'the meteor hero'? Frankly I've grown tired of the phrase." I complained.

Mew giggled. "I thought you would say that. Jirachi always said you were a big complainer. In fact, I think that's why she brought you back early."

I frowned. "Wait, I was supposed to come back? I thought that was a gift."

"Oops. That was a secret. Oh well." Mew giggled yet again. "It would've still been a gift, but you were supposed to get it later. Jirachi just thought you'd complain too much if you didn't get to stay."

'Aero was right. She really was a weirdo...'

"Wait. So you're the weird elder person that Aero was talking about?" Eve asked Mew.

Mew flew around in a small circle before nodding. "Yep! And you're Ella Grace's daughter hmm? Eve was it? Then there was Allyson and Luke..."

Eve frowned at her. "How do you know my family?"

Mew laughed. "I know a lot of people. I'm Mew remember? It's my job ya silly little eevee."

"Ohh...ok then..."

Alex stepped up to her. "Hey Mew. Aero said that you liked to meet explorers, so he brought us here. Is there any reason in particular that you like to meet with explorers?" Alex questioned her.

Mew just stared at him for a few seconds. "Hmm. You are an interesting one. Another human huh?" She drifted off. "Oh, right! Explorers help to ensure piece in the world. Plus, they go on all of these awesome adventures, so I like to meet them and hear about their travels. It seems that I've already heard some about you though. You did well with that meteor Austin." She put her hand under her chin. "Hmm... I'm not sure what you're supposed to do Alex..."

Alex looked confused. "Wait, if you don't know what I'm here for, then how do you know my name?"

Mew giggled. "Oh, names are easy. Fate and destiny stuff is hard to figure out." Mew looked between Alex and Eve and giggled some more. "I can tell what's in your hearts as well." She smiled.

Both Alex and Eve blushed. "So anyway. Mew, do ya think you could show us around town a little? We're on patrol and we kinda need to get some requests in."

Mew thought for a second. "Hmm... Well if you're looking for people to accept requests from, you won't find many here. Teehee! Most of them have left for Castello town so they could witness the Fairy Moon at the Fairy Festival this time of year. It's a very popular event."

"The Fairy Moon?" Eve asked her. She nodded.

"The Fairy Moon is an event that takes place around this time a year, and to those who don't know about magic it happens for unknown reasons. When a Fairy Moon occurs, the moon turns bright pink in the sky, and it's usually around midnight. It's a very rare sighting."

Eve looked impressed. "Wow! That sounds awesome!"

"Teehee. It really is." Mew agreed. "Now then, if you guys are looking for requests, you won't find them here." Mew's eyes suddenly lit up. "But...if I sent you there, you'd have plenty of people to help. Plus you'd get to see the festival."

"Huh? Oh, wait a minute! We can't go to Castello Town right now! We still have to-" I tried to interject, but it was clear that she wasn't listening.

"Alright guys. Hope you're used to teleportation by now!" Mew exclaimed before waving her hand towards us. With that, we disappeared in the blink of an eye.

* * *

**Back with Ella:**

After sitting in the library for a while, silently staring at that aged memento of my past, I got back up and made my way into the living room. Shard still wasn't back so it seemed. I looked back and forth around the room. "This place really could use some cleaning..." I thought out loud before walking over to the couch and laying down. "I'll get to it later..."

Suddenly my ears perked up as the sound of someone knocking on the door entered the room. I looked up lazily from my position on the couch, not really wanting to see anyone at the moment. I gave in when I heard a second knock and hopped off of the couch, headed for the door.

I let out a sigh and opened the door to reveal an espeon standing patiently on the porch. I squinted for a second before giving a small gasp. The espeon in front of me had emerald green eyes, just like Ally... Tears immediately started flowing from my eyes. "Evelyn?!"

Evelyn smiled. "Hello Ella. It's been a while hasn't it?"

I sniffled as I looked her up and down. I couldn't believe she'd actually come here. "Evelyn...I'm..."

"I know..." She interrupted me. "It's ok."

I smiled as I wrapped my arms around her in a tight embrace. "What are you doing here?"

I heard Evelyn sigh. "Wigglytuff contacted me to examen your daughters' team. Plus, I need to talk to you. Besides, does there have to be a reason for me to want to visit my twin sister?"

I pulled away from her. "Oh, uhh. No. Of course not. Come in! You can help me clean while we talk." I said excitedly as I ushered her into the house.

* * *

**Austin's Group, Castello Town, Austin's POV:**

As it turns out, Mew's teleportation ability is much faster than our badges. One second we were in the central post office, and the next we were in the center of a field of flowers. Next to us was a path that led straight down to a town in the distance, and next to the path was an incredibly long fence with another field just beyond it.

"I'm guessing that's Catello Town." Alex assumed, pointing towards the town in the distance. "Guess we can always go back for Auburn Town later."

I shrugged. "Better that than wasting more time backtracking. Let's go."

We nodded in agreement and started on our way down the path towards the town. Peering inside the fence, it seemed that the field was actually a rather large courtyard. 'What's up with this fence?' I wondered as we continued walking along the path.

After about ten minutes of walking, we finally reached the town. Just walking into it proved troublesome. There were hundreds of pokemon gathered around the just the square itself. "Wow, Mew wasn't kidding. This event really is popular."

We made our way towards the center of the plaza, which currently seemed to be its least populated area. "So uhh, where do we start?" I asked the others, scanning the town to find some place to start our patrol of the town, which was easier said than done. I stopped when my eyes landed on something interesting.

"Yeah, that's a good question. I didn't expect it to be 'this' crowded." Ally replied. "Austin?" She asked, noticing that I wasn't paying attention.

"Seriously? You guys have royalty too? Just how many similarities are there between pokemon and humans?" I asked the others while staring at the massive castle in front of me.

"Royalty?" Ally reiterated as the others turned to look at the castle as well. "Wait a minute, there's a castle in this town? I didn't know there was anything like this in the area."

Mari looked at her with a surprised expression. "Really? You haven't heard of the royal family here?" She asked as if she couldn't believe it.

Ally shook her head. "Nope, can't say we have. I mean we just moved here from Novora."

"Novora? Is that what our continent was called? That has a nice ring to it." Eve commented.

Mari shook her head. "Eh, well I guess that makes sense. The royal family has been keeping low recently. No one knows why, not that there's reason to worry or anything. They've still been doing their job. They always rule justly."

I nodded. "Well we still need to find somewhere to start off our patrol." I thought for a second before coming up with an idea. "Maybe there's a spell that can help. Hold on."

"Wait, Austin! You can't use magic in front of all of these people!" Ally warned me. I waved it off.

"Don't worry Ally. I won't use a spell if it seems noticeable. Now let's see..." I took out the spell book and grabbed the wand from the void and started reading through it. I hadn't even gotten through the third spell before a couple of pokemon walked up to us.

One of the pokemon, a small cat-like pokemon with mostly white fur covering its body, approached me. Upon closer inspection, the rest of its fur, including that covering its arms, legs and the top of its head, was a dark blue color. It had two fluffy, swirled tails that had both blue and white colors of fur. I believe it was called a meowstic.

"Excuse me sir. Could you explain to me why you have that wand in your possession?" The meowstic questioned me, a certain level of seriousness ringing out in her tone. By her voice, I could tell she was female.

I quickly sent the wand back into the void. "Wand? Sorry. I'm not sure what you're talking about. Is there some sort of problem?" I attempted to cover up, thinking they were just common people. Apparently that wasn't the case.

The meowstic looked at me with an unamused expression. "Sir, I saw you just use the void to hide the wand. I assure you we know what we're talking about, now answer the question or we'll be forced to detain you."

I looked at her with a vexed expression. "Detain me? What for?" Ally and the others also seemed confused.

She sighed. "Sir, that wand is stolen property. I'm going to have to ask you to come with us."

'What?! Stolen property?!' "Hey! Wait a minute. There's no way my wand is stolen property. The owner of this wand entrusted it to me to protect someone dear to me. I can't just part with it."

The meowstic didn't seem too convinced. "Sir, I'm not going to say this again. We're going to have to ask you to come with us. Explanations will have to wait." The two pokemon that were with her, two herdier, began to approach me as well and I raised my arms above my head.

"Alright, fine. I'll go." I gave in. The last thing I needed was to get myself in trouble with law enforcement.

She glanced at Ally and the others. "Your friends here will have to come in for questioning as well. Now, follow me." She directed as she began walking towards the castle. The two herdier dropped back a bit so that they were behind us before Urging us to follow.

"Austin, what's going on? That's my parents' wand. Why are we being questioned?" Ally whispered to me. I shrugged.

"I don't know. Guess we'll just have to find out." I looked towards Alex, but it seemed like he had something on his mind, so I just faced the path again and kept silent.

* * *

**2:00pm, Castello Castle:**

"Ugh, I'm sooo bored... Austin, why'd you have to get us thrown in jail?" Eve whined, kicking one of the bars of the cell. "Man, there's nothing to do..."

"Hey! I didn't do anything, and this isn't jail. This is a holding cell. It's actually kinda nice in here. Jail cells don't have couches in them." I defended as I sunk back into the couch at the back of the cell. "I don't really know what's going on, but this place sure is huge."

"Yeah. I didn't know there was such luxury around this area. It's a rather beautiful place if you ask me."

Mari groaned. "I can't believe you people got me stuck in here. I'm already in trouble with the law. I mean, hello. Parolee here. I could end up getting locked up." Mari sounded extremely nervous.

"Mari, calm down. You're not gonna get locked up. If anything, I'm protecting you from that." I attempted to calm her down. My ears twitched as I heard a voice from somewhere beyond the bars.

"Excuse me Meowstic, I'd like to see the ones you're holding in that cell. I'd like to question them personally if that's ok with you." Said someone, male by the voice, but he wasn't within our field of view. "Yes I'm aware that we usually get an actual investigator to question them, but your description of the crime interests me. Thank you. I'll make it quick." He said again.

Suddenly footsteps could be heard conning down the corridor, and soon the figure of a leafeon came into view. He approached us with a pensive look on his face.

"Hey. Come on, when are we going to be questioned? I'm bored." Eve asked the leafeon. He looked over at her and seemed to study her for a second before doing the same thing to the rest of us.

"Well well well..." He muttered, a smile forming on his face. "Meowstic! Hurry up and get these guys out of here! My granddaughters are among them!"

"Granddaughters? Old man, what are you talking about?" Eve asked him.

The leafeon laughed heartily. "Oh, my dear Eve. I was there when you were born. You were born on the night of the Fairy Moon eighteen years ago when it occurred on New Years Eve. Your mother is Ella, is she not?"

Ally and Eve gasped. "You know our mom?!" They both exclaimed in surprise.

The leafeon laughed yet again. "But of course I do. I'm your grandfather, Synth. Of course, you don't remember me because your parents fled with you to Novora when you were both two, but it's all the more true. Shade's made things complicated for our family."

At the mentioning of Shade, my eyes lit up and I ran up to the bars of the cell. "Shade?! Please tell me you know more about him than we do! The last time we came across him, he nearly killed both Ally and me!"

Synth looked at me with intense curiosity. "You're the pikachu with the wand correct? Ella must really trust you if she entrusted it to you." He inquired. "If you're wondering about Shade, we'll tell you what we know later. Come to think of it, you remind me of two pikachu Ella and Shard used to spend time around. Their names were umm...Sam and Emma."

"Wait! Those are my parents! You knew them too?" I asked him a bit excitedly. His curiosity grew.

"Sam and Emma had a son?" He asked out loud. "Oh, that's why you remind me of them." He laughed.

"This...this makes sense." Alex muttered from the couch at the back of the cell. "You're the king right?" He asked Synth, to which he nodded.

Ally and Eve looked shocked. "Wait a minute, if you're the king, does that make us royalty as well?!"

Synth nodded. "Quite true. I'm assuming the parents never mentioned any of this to you."

Alex nodded. "That means that Eve's entire family is royalty. That makes sense now that I think about it. There were tons of books in Ella's library that talked about Castello's castle. Some had crests that I had never seen before, some had information on policies and such, and a few even had schematics and renovation plans for the castle. I noticed that there were no books on the royal family itself however, which I found a bit suspicious. Not to mention that barely anyone if anyone at all in Treasure Town knows their full names."

Synth gave him an impressed look. "Your deduction is quite impressive. Yes, Ella has quite the habit of collecting books to fill up her library, even if those books contain vital castle documents."

Just then, Meowtic came into the room with a set of keys and opened the cell. "Sorry for the misunderstanding everyone." She apologized before quickly retreating back down the corridor.

Synth looked after her. "Sorry if Meowtic was too rough with you. She means well, but she tends to take her job a bit too seriously at times." He laughed. "Shall we head to the throne room to talk?" He offered. "I have a few things to show to you in there. Plus, I'm sure your grandmother will want to meet you as well."

He beckoned us to follow with his leaf-like tail. We did as he suggested and followed him down the hall Meowstic had previously left through before turning and climbing up an arching staircase and entering into a rather large room with brilliantly colored stained glass windows on both walls accompanied by pink curtains hung up in a decorative fashion around them. There were several decorative couches and chairs positioned comfortably around the room, and several book shelves lined the walls. Along one of the walls, there was a burning fireplace, with a small rug in front of it, and in the center of the room there was a large circular shape with an interestingly shaped crest inside it. The room itself was slightly dim, only lit by the various lamps that were positioned around the room and the light filtering in from the stained glass windows, which seemed to give it a certain cozy feel.

Synth turned back to us. "I know. Our style might differ quite a bit from your expectations of what a throne room looks like, but we prefer to let people relax when they come to us with concerns or when we invite them here. We feel that the traditional formal layout with two thrones at the end of the room is kind of intimidating."

Sleeping on a couch at the far right of the room near the fireplace was a flareon with a heart shaped necklace around her neck. The flareon appeared to have been reading before it fell asleep, as it was now using a book as a pillow. Synth smiled. "Ally, Eve. That's your grandmother, Anna. As you can see, she's pretty lax." He almost laughed at that. "Oh who am I kidding? She has enough energy to stay awake for three nights straight and still run a marathon the next morning. Though strangely, reading tires her out in a snap."

"Hmm, sounds a lot like Eve... Eve?" I looked back and forth between our group and Synth, but couldn't find Eve anywhere. Suddenly my eyes were drawn over to where Anna was sleeping. I tilted my head in slight confusion as Eve grabbed an oran berry from one of the nearby baskets and walked over to the couch, but soon found myself struggling to hold back a laugh as she quickly replaced the book her grandmother had been using as a pillow with the blue colored berry.

"Eve, what are you-?!" Ally started to head over to stop her, but I blocked her with my arm.

"How about we let their meeting be an interesting one, hmm?" I smirked. Ally seemed to get the picture and backed up with the same expression.

I looked over to see Eve walk behind the couch and jump on top of it. Then, without warning, she shouted straight into her grandmother's unsuspecting ear. "Hey grandma! Wake up!" She shouted at the top of her lungs.

The shout seemed to have the same effect as Loudred's voice as Anna immediately woke up, jerking as she did so, but instead of hitting a book, her head hit the oran berry and crushed it, splattering it's blue juice all over her and a small portion of the couch.

"What the?!" Anna exclaimed as she looked down at the crushed berry beneath her head. "Alright, who switched my pillow with an oran berry and shouted to wake me up?!" She asked irritably.

Synth laughed heartily. "Honey. I think you might want to ask the snickering eevee on top of the couch with the book in her paws." He informed his wife comically.

She turned around with a confused expression before catching sight of Eve, who immediately upon being spotted hid her face behind the book ironically titled "how to stay hidden".

"Hmm, well look who we have here. A troublemaker huh?" She said slyly. "It seems that I've grown a bit lax. I let my own granddaughter get the best of me." She smiled as she stood up on the couch and wrapped her arms around Eve in a gentle embrace. "Ooh, I haven't seen you since you were only two years old! You've grown so big! Where's your sister?!"

The rest of us walked up to them as she was affectionately hugging Eve. "I'm right here. Sorry about Eve's wake up call." Ally apologized, but Anna didn't seem to care.

"Ally!" She exclaimed as she let go of Eve and jumped off of the couch. She proceeded to hug Ally in the same fashion she did Eve. "You've both grown so well since then! Seriously, I don't know why my daughter insisted on keeping us a secret from you."

"Honey, don't you remember? It's because of Shade." Synth reminded her.

"Ugh, that young man again. What trouble has he gotten himself into now? It's sad really. He used to be such a nice boy." She complained.

I stepped up to her. "Shade's approached us twice already. His only interest seems to be killing both Ally and Eve, though he's only managed to get to Ally so far. He attacked us while we were sleeping one night."

Anna sighed. "So he's started pursuing you now hmm?" She asked rhetorically. "Wait a minute, who are you?"

I put my paw to my chest. "Oh I'm Austin, your granddaughter's boyfriend. You uhh, might know me better as Sam and Emma's son, though we've never really met before."

She gave a faint smile. "Somehow I knew those two kids were compatible." She commented, probably in reference to my parents. "So, I take it you got sent here as well huh? And what about you?" She asked Alex.

"I used to be human as well. Eve found me on the beach not too long ago and, well, I have amnesia just like Austin. I can't really tell you anything about who I was before, but I'm Eve's best friend." He introduced himself.

"Oh, well regardless it's nice to meet you. Any friend of our granddaughters' is a friend of ours." She eyed Eve curiously for a second before turning to look at Mari. "And it seems that I've seen you before as well, Miss Mari Amber from Auburn Town. Staying out of trouble I see?"

Mari shrunk back a little. "Yes, of course. In fact, I have my own exploration team. A friend I met named Flint helped me start it." She seemed a bit defensive with her statement.

Anna sighed. "Now now. No need to be nervous. I'm not interrogating you. You're a fine young lady. We all know that fire had nothing to do with you." She comforted her. "Now, Synth. I'm assuming that you've already told them who they really are?"

Synth nodded. "Yes, however." He turned to face Eve. "Eve, you and Ally may be twins, but since you were born a couple minutes early, that makes you first in line after your parents retire from their positions."

Ally gasped and Eve tilted her head. "First in line? What does that mean?"

"What?! Synth, err, grandad, that's not exactly a good idea. Eve's a little, umm...hyperactive." Ally explained hastily.

Synth laughed. "Eve, that means that you will be the queen after your mother retires from it, that is also after Shade is apprehended of course. And I'm sure there's nothing to worry about Ally. She'll have people to watch after her."

"What?! No way! I don't wanna be stuck here! I'm an explorer, and I'm not gonna stop until I'm the best!" Eve complained, which surprised Synth a bit.

"You mean you don't want to do it?" Anna asked her, chiming in. Eve shook her head stubbornly. "Oh, well that's fine then. Ally?"

Ally sighed. "Oh, me?! Umm, I don't really know. I guess it could be cool, but I'm still traveling right now."

Anna nodded understandingly. "Alright then, well besides that we have something to show you. Please follow us to the crest in the center of the room."

Once we had all gathered around the intricately designed crest, Anna moved to tap several times in different places on top of it. I found it a bit strange, or at least I did until the crest began to glow with an iridescent light which shot outwards and eventually formed into a portal of some kind.

"This is the Grace Family Wizard World Portal, or just simply the family's portal. Now, if you haven't already been told, we call the wizard world Centura, and its main main language is Centuran. Austin, you might recognize it as the human equivalent of what they call French. Anyway, Xerneas created Centura in order to ensure that magic be kept a secret. Of course, there are still wizards here, but if all wizards and normal pokemon shared the same world, the secret would inevitably slip out." Anna explained.

I nodded. "I get it, but why keep such a big portal around? Aren't there spells you could use to transport yourself to Centura?"

"Well of course, but for those wizards without magic, getting there would be almost impossible without a stationary portal like this one. Take Eve for example. If she wanted to get to Centura, she wouldn't be able to use a spell because she has no magic, so she'd have to use a portal like this one."

"Hmph! You guys get to have all the fun!" Eve complained.

Alex patted her on the shoulder to calm her down. "So, is this al you had to show us?" He asked them.

Anna shook her head. "No, not just yet." She placed her paw on the small heart shaped charm necklace that hung around her neck. Eve, this is a necklace that belonged to your great grandmother." She explained as she took it off and walked over to Eve. "I want you to have it now."

"Huh? Why me? Isn't Ally gonna take over the throne or something?" Eve questioned.

Anna laughed. "No, it's just... You remind me of her a lot. I really think that she would've wanted you to have it." She proceeded to clip it around Eve's neck. "There we go. Looks great on you too."

Anna was about to say something else, but was suddenly interrupted when a siren erupted outwards from somewhere far off in the town. I looked out towards a balcony I hadn't seen before, attempting to find the source of the siren. "Whelp, looks like that's our queue." I commented.

Eve looked really pumped for some reason. "Alright! Finally, some action!" She exclaimed before running towards the balcony and jumping straight off of it."

'Ugh, seriously. What is up with her today?' Synth sighed. "Well it's a good thing we're only about a floor up. She doesn't like to stick around and wait does she?" Synth laughed. Anna gave him a quick jab to the side.

"Don't laugh, she could be hurt." Anna criticized before running over to the balcony and looking down. "Well she's not hurt, but she's definitely not here anymore." She turned back around. "You guys should hurry. I don't like the idea of one of my granddaughters being out and about in this town alone during this time of year."

I nodded. "Will do. We'll be back soon." With that, the rest of us gathered our bearings and followed Eve's lead, running towards the balcony and jumping straight off.

* * *

**Random Shop in Castello Town, ? POV:**

Can you imagine how terrifying it can be to get threatened and mugged by a group of tough looking individuals in a book store? Well, I can't. I was too distracted with a book I had recently picked up from one of the shelves and the music filling my ears from the headphones I wore beneath the hood of my cloak. There wasn't much to care about when I was distracted from the outside world, but apparently a bunch of thugs had broken in and held up the freaking place looking for a couple of pikachu. Yep, they literally broke in. Through the windows, setting off the alarms and quite surprisingly a siren. You'd think if they really wanted to rob the store, they'd just walk in, but then again I couldn't care less.

Pretty soon, one of the guys walked in and started shouting at me. He gave up pretty quickly and grabbed me by the shoulder, forcing me to turn around. I sighed and took off my hood and my headphones, giving him a fake innocent look. "What is it?"

"Heh, real funny kid. Now, out your paws behind your head and hand over all your poké."

I kept smiling at him. "So, are you robbing me or something?" I asked him, still keeping up my innocent act.

He looked at me oddly. "Yes! Now give me everything you have! Now!"

"Oh..." I smirked at him for a split second before raising my foot up and kicking him hard in the gut, sending him flying back through the window where he had come from. I quickly turned my headphones off and put them away before running up to the window myself and jumping out of it.

Once outside, I peered back into the shop."Well, get going. Get that girl!" He shouted. It seemed that the leader of the group had seen one of his henchmen go flying out the window and decided he needed to send all of them after me at once. I responded by reaching into my bag and pulling out a small, cylindrical object. Pressing the button in its center, the cylinder suddenly expanded into a long staff.

Before the first guy could reach me, I twirled the staff once before bringing it up and thrusting it hard towards his face, catching him off guard and sending him flying back. I followed up by vaulting off the ground using the staff and coming down hard on top of the second guy with a downward kick. Not wasting any time, I clicked the center button again to reveal the blade of the staff, transforming it into a scythe. I let the blade part dig into the ground a bit before I kicked off the ground and swung around, kicking the third guy in the face as I came back around, using the momentum to pull the scythe out of the ground and flip myself upwards out of the way of an oncoming attack from the last attacker. I pulled the scythe behind my back before pouring aura into its tip and firing it off, the momentum the blast created sending me spinning like a top until I finally brought the staff side of the blade down on my attacker's head, effectively knocking him out.

I looked around me and then smirked at the leader who was still inside the store. "Nice job riolu. Looks like you have some fight in you, unlike most of the pathetic people in this town." He gave me a nasty look. "But mark my words, you're a lucky little girl. I'm a busy man, so you'll get to run free this time. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got places to go and people to find." He laughed before disappearing into thin air.

I relaxed from my fighting stance and reverted the scythe back to its small cylindrical form before placing it back in my bag. 'Well that was fun.' I smiled and put my hood back on as I walked back into the store to get some information myself. 'But still, I can't help but wonder...'

* * *

**Castello Town Central Square, Eve's POV:**

The siren finally died down as I burst into the square, looking back and forth in all directions for any signs of action. After a few moments of searching, I gave up and sat down in disappointment. "Aww man, someone must've gotten to it before me."

I spent a few seconds moping about it before my ears perked up at a certain 'whoosh' sound I was all too familiar with. "A teleportation spell?" I looked up and glanced around me. To my surprise, a good ten or twelve pokemon had surrounded me and were facing the citizens of the square, seemingly making conversation.

"Hmm? Hold on..." I sat there and leaned in with my ear raised as high as it could go, listened carefully to what was going on.

"Everybody listen up! Just cooperate with us and no one gets hurt!" One of the pokemon shouted forcefully. "Now, we're looking for two individuals! Start talking! We know they've been here recently!"

'Nobody gets hurt? Are these guys threatening to hurt the citizens?' I took a second glance around at the group and scowled. 'There's no way that's happening!' "Hey you! Loud mouth over there!" I shouted at the one who had previously been speaking. In the time it took him to turn around, I was already up near his face with my paw drawn back. "Rrrgh, eat this!" I yelled as I struck him with the flat of my paw. He gasped out from the sudden attack as he was thrown back into a couple of booths, a shockwave emanating from the impact.

I flipped back and slid to a stop just in time for every eye in the crowd to fall on me. "Everyone, get out of the square, now!" I yelled at them as I glanced around at the remaining outlaws. Immediately, everyone began to hastily evacuate.

Once they were all out of the square, something near the booth caught my eye and I turned to see that the leader of the outlaws had gotten back up. "Ugh, why you little bratt! First it's that scythe wielding riolu and now a hot headed little eevee. I'm really starting to lose my patience here." He complained as he glared at me. "You'll pay for that! Get her!"

At those words, every one of the outlaws charged at me. I smirked and lowered myself into a fighting position before pouncing straight up. One of the enemy, a pawniard, attempted to hit me while I was in the air, but I simply twisted around his attack. Upon my fall, I pulled my paw back and struck the ground with all the poet I could muster. There was a rumble, and suddenly huge cracks started to spread wildly from where I had struck the ground. The cracks eventually caused the ground to become unsteady and shift upwards slightly in all different directions, throwing my enemies off balance.

I looked down at my paw and shook it slightly. "Wow. Guess I don't know my own strength."

My ears suddenly twitched as I looked up to find a huge green orb heading my way. I dived to the right to avoid it as it exploded against the ground, covering it in a thin layer of green...glass? 'They're wizards!' I concluded as I avoided another similar attack. 'Alright then, time to have some fun.' I snickered as I dig underground.

I had memorized where most of my enemies had been standing, so it wasn't too hard to resurface behind one of them and jump onto their head. "What?! Hey kid! Get off of me!" The angry monferno yelled at me as I hung down in front of his face and stuck my tongue out at him. He tried to strike at me, but I jumped off of his head before he could and landed on top of a raichu. This time I let my tail hang down in front of his face.

"Rrgh! Hey kid, I'm warning you! Stop playing around with us! We don't take to kindly to it!" The raichu yelled. I laughed at him.

"Alright, then why don't you come and get me?!" I teased him as I jumped off of his head and sped off towards the monferno.

"Why you little!" He shouted before attempting to hit me with a thunderbolt, only to end up striking the monferno with it by accident.

"Wow. You are a terrible aim, you know that?" I laughed at the raichu before flipping back to dodge an oncoming spell. 'Seriously, is this all these guys have to show?'

Apparently it wasn't. I had neglected to pay attention to the leader, a charmeleon, who before I could react was directly above me readying what looked to be a rainbow colored sphere. 'What?! But he's not using a wand!' I braced myself for the impact, but it never came.

"Jet-Amp!" Shouted a familiar voice from somewhere near me. I looked up quickly to see Austin punch the charmeleon hard in the gut, sending him flying straight into several of the other pokemon, who were then driven straight into the ground. They didn't get up after that. 'Where did he come from?!'

Austin landed right next to me and helped me up. When I had finally gathered my footing, I looked at him to thank him but took a step back when I saw his appearance. Electricity was circulating through his entire body like crazy. "Austin, what is this? What are you doing?"

Austin smirked. "Well I haven't been reading those books for nothing. This is a variation of an elemental combat magic technique. I created it. I call it Jet-Amp since it greatly increases my speed and attacking power."

I tilted my head. "It's a what?"

He laughed. "It's an awesome battle technique." He simplified.

I nodded in understanding and turned back to face our enemies. "Where are Ally and the others?"

"We're right here." Ally answered for him as she ran up to us. "What's going on?"

"These creeps suddenly showed up and threatened the townsfolk. I had to intervene." I explained to her.

"So you brought back-up did you?" Said one of the pokemon in the group. "Well regardless, it won't help you at all. Since we know that you're wizards, we can stop holding back."

At that point, we all stepped back into our fighting positions, ready to face whatever they threw at us.

There were only four of them left now, so taking them down shouldn't be too hard. Suddenly one of them, a dewott shot straight towards us with one of his scalchops readied. The scalchop soon grew into a long blade as he pulled it back. Alex raced forward, readying his own sword as he did so, and stopped him midway, his sword half sheathed. "Not so fast. If you get hasty, that might just be your downfall." Alex stated as he re-sheathed his sword, catching the dewott's blade in the process before he placed his foot on the dewott's chest, kicked off the ground, flipped them both backwards once, and slammed him into the ground. He was unconscious by the time Alex sheathed his sword again.

Alex walked back to our group. "Your turn Austin."

Austin nodded as the electricity that was flowing through him amplified a bit. I blinked a bit when he seemingly disappeared, only to reappear near one of the enemy pokemon and slam down on his head with a readied iron tail. I saw him take out his wand to perform a spell, but he was knocked out of the way by an attack before he could do so...at least, that's what I thought. Just as he hit the ground, a green light left his wand and shot out towards us. The light collided with Ally and sent her flying back a couple of feet. Neither of them got up.

"Uhh, what just happened?" I asked the others, but apparently they didn't have any answers either. I just shrugged it off. "Mari, can you go get Ally and see if she's ok? We'll take care of these two." Mari nodded and ran back towards Ally.

"Alright Alex, let's take these guys down!" I exclaimed before taking off towards one of the two, a servine. He attempted to lash out his vines at me, but I avoided each of them and dived over him, readying an iron tail. Once I was directly over him, I slammed my tail down hard on his head and rebounded just in time to avoid a seemingly explosive spell that whizzed by me and exploded against the ground. By the time I looked over at the other enemy, Alex already had him on the ground unconscious.

I laughed. "Haha! That was awesome! We messed up the square a bit, but it was worth the action!" I glanced over at Austin. "Alex, can you go check on Austin?"

"Yeah, I got him. Don't worry." He sighed as he jumped off of the rypherior he had just taken down and made his way over to Austin. I was about to join him when I heard something move over to my side. I turned just in time to see several large, glowing spikes headed towards me, and fast. The attack seemed pretty easy to dodge, but I was honestly too surprised to do so.

I was about to turn away when suddenly a blur passed my vision and a red-cloaked figure with a hood over its head landed in front of me. The figure was wielding what looked like a scythe. Right as the spikes were supposed to hit me, the figure twirled the scythe like a staff and destroyed them all, then in one quick motion, dashed towards the leader, who had somehow gotten up without me noticing, and prepared to attack him with the back of the blade. However, when the attack made contact, the leader shattered like glass.

"Wait, what?! How did he-?!" The figure asked out loud, removing her hood and revealing herself to be a riolu. "That's just great." From her voice, I could tell she was female. She took her scythe and pressed a button in the center of it, which seemed to make it shrink to the size of a poké coin, before she put it in a small bag she kept strapped to her side.

"Hey! Hey riolu! Thanks for saving me, I appreciate it!" I thanked her, walking up to her with a smile.

She turned around with an expressionless face. "It's not a problem. You should go help your friend over there, and...give him this." She took a small slip of paper out of her bag and handed it to me.

I accepted it and looked down to read it. "Wait a minute, what does this mean?!" I attempted to ask her, but when I looked up, she was gone. I glanced around the entire square, but couldn't find her. "Well fine, don't tell me what it means."

I placed the slip of paper carefully in the lacing of my bow before running up to the rest of my group. They had pulled Austin and Ally up next to each other and were trying to revive them.

Once I reached them, both of them had begun to stir. They opened their eyes and sat up. I jumped at Ally and hugged her. "Haha! Ally, you're ok! Don't scare me like that!"

"Ugh, Eve? Why are you hugging me? I'm not Ally." I frowned and let go, looking at her strangely.

"What do you mean you're not Ally? I'm looking right at you." I looked at herself and gasped. "What the heck?! How'd I get in Ally's-?!" She turned towards Austin with a shocked expression. "Did we just-?"

Austin nodded. "I think we did..."

Suddenly, the realization hit me like a ton of bricks. I hit the floor, rolling around and laughing like crazy. "Hahahaha! You've got to be kidding me!"


	9. The Chosen!

 

* * *

**_"In the end, the quests that are the most difficult often turn up with the most valuable reward. Knowledge."_ **

* * *

**3:00pm, Grace Family Castle, Austin's POV:**

"It's not funny Eve!" Ally and I complained as we stood in the center of the throne room waiting for Anna and Synth to finish locking up the outlaws Eve had pummeled. Meanwhile, Eve was busy laughing at the fact that Ally and I had switched bodies. I mean, I had turned into a pikachu just six months ago, and now I was suddenly an eevee...and a girl! She didn't have to make it any more awkward.

I sighed as I looked down at my-err Ally's paws. 'Heh, her paws are pretty cute. Never noticed that before'. I smiled just as Eve dropped into another fit of laughter.

Ally rolled her eyes. My eyes? Whatever, you get the point. "We get it Eve, it's funny. To me, I guess it could be fun. That is assuming I get used to walking on two legs." She said as she lost her balance and nearly fell over. Luckily I was a bit proficient in walking on four legs as I dashed forward and caught her. "Thanks Austin." She smiled.

Just then, Synth and Anna walked back in. "It's just as we feared, these rogue wizards have all been known for making deals with Shade in the past. From the description we got of the leader however, I'm afraid we don't know much about him."

"So, how's the switch adventure going so far?" Synth laughed as he approached us.

"Ally has cute paws."

"Walking is confusing."

"Oh, so not that much huh?" He inquired.

Suddenly, Eve stood up looking quite alert. "Oh yeah!" She ran over to me. "Austin! That riolu girl told me to give this to you!" She reached into the lining of her bow and pulled out a small slip of paper before handing it to me.

I frowned at it as I struggled to open it with Ally's paws. "...Two pikachu, eyes gold and silver? What does that mean?"

"I know right?!" Eve agreed.

"Hmm... I do recall your parents having those respective eye colors." Anna thought out loud.

My eyes widened. "What?! So this is about my parents?! But why? Eve, who was that riolu girl you mentioned?"

Eve shrugged. "I don't know. She didn't look familiar to me, and she disappeared right after I read what was on the paper."

"I recognized her. She was the girl that I fought in Marowak's tournament. The one with the large scythe." Alex stated. "But what does she have to do with Austin's parents?"

Anna intervened. "I think you should wait to talk to Ella and Shard about this. I'm afraid they'd be more help to you than we would when it comes to this kind of stuff. After all, Sam and Emma were their best friends."

I nodded. "I guess so... We have a patrol test to get back to anyway. I suppose we can't wait around here much longer. I don't think Evelyn'll pass us if we're too late."

Anna suddenly gasped. "Evelyn?!"

I looked at her oddly. "Yeah, Evelyn's the famous explorer that's deciding whether we deserve to get our patrol permit early or not. Do you know her?"

"Hmm? ...Oh umm, no. Sorry. It's nothing." She dismissed it.

I cast her a suspicious glance before turning to face the rest of my team. "Well team, it's about time we get back to the test. Let's set out for Auburn Town!"

"Heh, alright Ally!" Eve snickered. I just rolled my eyes.

"Oh and Austin, Ally. One more thing. That spell that switched you. It should wear off in a week or so." Anna briefed us. 'A week? Great...'

"Right! Thanks Anna. It was great meeting you! We'll be off now!" I smiled back at her as we exited the room.

* * *

**Castello Town Square:**

As we entered the square, we immediately noticed that a huge crowd had gathered around the gates to the castle. They seemed to all be cheering.

"Hey! There's the girl who saved us!" Shouted some random person in the crowd, and suddenly the cheering increased in volume. They quickly moved in to surround Eve, picked her up and started tossing her up into the air.

"Hey! Put me down, I get it!" She protested, but her laughter suggested that she rather liked the attention.

"Well someone's famous." I commented as I stared up at my teammate with a smile.

After a while of tossing her up and down, the crowd quieted and let her down. One of the residents, a vaporeon stepped out of the crowd and walked over to her.

"Hello there. I'm Mrs. Martha, the directress of the Castello Town Academy. On behalf of the town, I must thank you for protecting us. Though I must ask, what is your name?"

Eve just stood there looking a bit nervous. "This here ladies and gentlemen of Castello Town, is your own princess, Evening Meadow Grace." Synth stated as he walked out into the square to stand beside Eve. The entire square went silent after that. "Yes, the hero who has saved you is Miss Evening, who has returned to her hometown after sixteen years of absence. Her twin sister Miss Allyson is also among us."

The crowd stayed silent for a moment before cheering again.

Mrs. Martha looked genuinely surprised. "Heh, well aren't you quite the truant." She laughed as she ruffled the fur on the top of Eve's head. "Though I do suppose that older sister of mine is the cause of it. I'll never understand any of her decisions."

"Older sister? Wait, you're my aunt?" Eve asked her.

When asked, she just smiled. "Well of course. You didn't think your mother was the only one did you? Honestly, you'd think your mother'd let you know at least a little about the rest of your family." She complained. "Anyway, we were quite like you guys. Just me, Ella and..."

Eve looked at her funny. "And who?"

"Oh umm, well...never mind. It was a mistake." She nervously corrected herself.

At that, Eve seemed to get annoyed. "Ok, what's going on? Lately I've been getting the feeling that you people are hiding something from us, and it's more than just being royalty. Who is this other person you were going to mention, and why does everyone act like they've seen a ghost or something every time they hear the name Evelyn?!"

"..." Martha sighed as the crowd began to disperse. Deciding that this conversation was important, we walked up to join them. "Well Eve, you see...your mother...she has a twin. Just like you two..."

Ally and Eve's eyes widened with surprise. "What?!"

Martha seemed a bit confused as to why 'I' had responded to that, to which I quickly explained the body switch.

"So you're saying that Evelyn is our aunt as well?!"

Martha nodded. "That is correct. As to why we don't speak of her, that is simply due to your mother's request."

"What?! But why would Mom want to keep her own twin sister a secret from us?!" Eve seemed more surprised about this than when she found out that she was royalty.

"Well...it's because she found out that Evelyn's magic is based on dark magic. A dark magic typing. I'll admit, it is irrational, but your mother feared for your safety at the time. Trust me, she undoubtably regrets it now. Evelyn moved to another continent long ago, and it greatly upset her. Please do not be angry with her for this. It will only make it worse for her."

Ally and Eve nodded. 'Who could've known she held such a secret? But still... Why is Evelyn here now?'

"Right! I know what I've gotta do!" Eve stated, now seemingly in a hype. "I've gotta help my mom with sister problems!"

Martha sighed. "You are just like Evelyn..." She turned and ruffled the fur on Eve's head. "You should stop by more often ya know. I assume your parents have taught you well, but that's far different than being mentored at the academy."

Eve sighed. "The academy? Ugh, sounds boring. I'd rather be out exploring!"

"I thought you'd say that..." Martha smiled. "You also bear a striking resemblance to your great grandmother. Appearance and personality." She laughed. "Anyway, I suppose I shouldn't hold you four up. I'm assuming you have somewhere to get to?"

"Yes. We're on a patrol test for Wigglytuff's Guild. Curiously, Evelyn's our proctor." Alex answered as he approached Martha. "I'm assuming you have no idea as to why she's here."

To no surprise, Martha seemed shocked. "Evelyn's here!? Well...if that's the case, I can only assume that she's heard about Shade."

Alex nodded. "Makes sense. Naturally if she found out her family was in danger, she'd want to come back and help. As to why she didn't tell us who she was, I can only guess that had something to do with Ella."

"Well regardless, we have to finish up this test. Evelyn will surely be waiting on us by now." I walked to the front of the group. "We've spent too much time here, so let's hurry up and get to Auburn town. We can ask questions later."

Eve jumped up, excitement practically boiling within her now. 'Oh no...' "Yeah! Let's hurry up and finish this thing so I can ask Aunt Evelyn if she knows any embarrassing secrets about Mom!" She exclaimed before running off towards the nearest path she could find. Thankfully, it was the right one.

I turned to Martha. "Thank you for your help Martha. It was nice to meet you. Alex, you might want to-"

"Way ahead of you!" He interrupted as he ran off in pursuit of Eve.

"We should be going too." I laughed. "Come on Ally. Let's hurry. Even with Alex, there's no telling what kind of trouble Eve could get into."

* * *

**Road to Auburn Town:**

"Ok ok, so maybe I should've stopped at the third pitfall." Eve sulked as she tried to shake out the remaining water from her fur.

I sighed. "Really Eve? Did ya have to prank everyone in town right as we left? And why would you ever think it was a good idea to drop a swampert into a pitfall trap?"

Eve glared at me. "Oh shut up! You're the one who switched bodies with your girlfriend!"

Ignoring her comment, I turned to Ally. "Yeah, speaking of that. Ally, how do you think your parents will react to this umm...situation?"

Ally shrugged. "I'm not sure. I don't think they'd be critical of you. My dad's just acting silly when he tries to intimidate you. Makes him feel more manly I guess, and you know how my mom is. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this has happened to them before." She laughed.

I laughed along. "I guess so..." Taking a glance back, I found Mari straying quite far from the group. I frowned. 'What's up with her?'

"I'll be right back." I excused myself as I made my way back to her. "Hey Mari. You doing alright?"

She looked up suddenly, as if awoken from a daydream. "Hmm? Oh uhh..." She looked over at me in confusion. "What is it?"

"I asked if you were doing alright. You seemed troubled by something."

Her head fell at my response. "Oh...well, I'm fine. At least, I think so. I was just thinking about Flint... I wanted to take him to see Auburn Town...and truthfully, I'm scared to go without him..."

"What? How come?" I really didn't like her demeanor towards the mentioning of the town.

"Well...Auburn Town's my hometown."

I gave her a vexed expression. "Oh. So what's bad about that?"

She let out a sigh as she lifted her head, traces of anxiety still clearly present in her eyes. "Because everyone thinks I burned it down."

My eyes widened considerably as I let out a gasp. "What?! You mean the town?! They think you burned the town down?!"

She nodded. "Of course, the court in Castello Town ruled me innocent, which is why I'm free, but ever since then I couldn't set one foot in the town without being stared at like I was some sort of monster. People do crazy things when they're scared, so naturally I just stayed away. I guess you could call it a cycle of fear."

"Oh..." I sounded, trying to think of something better to say. "So that's what Anna meant when she said she knew you weren't responsible for a fire... I had no idea..." I turned to Mari. "Listen, if you're not comfortable going to this town, we can send you home." I offered.

Mari looked up in surprise. "What?! You'd actually..." She sighed. "No. I can't leave. If I do, Evelyn might count the test as invalid."

After a few seconds of silence, I have a hesitant nod and stared straight ahead. "Well then. When we get there, just stick close to us. No one'll try anything as long as you do that. I promise." I smiled.

With that, Mari seemed to lighten up immediately. "Thanks Austin. Just...I wouldn't mention your team name."

I nodded, understanding why. "Right, well I believe I see buildings ahead of us. Hey Eve! Is that the town?!"

Eve looked back at me with an annoyed expression. Apparently I had interrupted one of her 'Alex daydreams'. "Of course it's the town! What else would have buildings?! Why are you shouting at me anyway?!"

I laughed and turned back to Mari. "I'm gonna head to the front of the group. Why don't you go talk to Miss Daydream? Keep her out of trouble."

Mari laughed as well. "Alright. Talk to you later." She then took off towards Eve. "Hey Eve! Wait up!"

I took off as well, trying my best to catch up to Ally on four legs. I seriously regretted not practicing this when I was in my body. Ally's body was extremely fit however, so it wasn't too terrible a challenge to do so. "So Ally. How's the walking thing going?" I asked her once I reached her.

She shrugged. "Ehh, I think I've gotten the hang of it now. I haven't tripped since we left the castle." She replied. "I just can't believe we have to stay like this for a week. I mean, what happens when we have to use the restroom?"

At that I blushed. "Yeah... I kinda already did that. Eheheh... Yeah. Needless to say, I had to ask Anna for a towel..."

Ally gave me a questionable glance. "What?! I had to go and I couldn't exactly wait for us to be switched back! And I'm a guy. I don't exactly know how to... Well, you know."

Ally sighed. "Please don't tell me I have to show you how to use the restroom."

"Well I uhh..."

"Thank Arceus I didn't switch with anyone else..." Ally shook her head. "So you think we'll get many requests here?"

I sighed. "I'm not sure. Mari told me she's not well received in this town."

"What? You mean the citizens don't like her? How come?"

I looked down slightly. "Well, Mari told me that it's because they think she caused the fire that burnt the town to the ground a long time ago. Of course, she didn't, but..."

"I see..." Ally perked up. "Well, if we don't get any requests, that's fine. It's not like that'll count against us. We'll just pass through the town and be on our way."

"Agreed."

* * *

**4:00pm, Auburn Town, Eve's POV:**

"This town...is weird." I said to myself as I looked at my surroundings. The town was hardly half the size of Castello Town, and the majority of it seemed to be made up of long or awkwardly shaped houses with strange, intricate patterns on some of the doors or the occasional sign. The worst thing was, the residents seemed to be giving us odd looks. I don't know if I was just being paranoid, or if they had some kind of problem with us, but something just seemed...off.

"So uhh, didn't you say this was your home town or something?" I asked Mari, who seemed to be keeping unusually close to me.

"Yeah. This is the place I was born anyway... Not sure it's actually a home anymore."

I raised an eyebrow at the answer, but decided to let it slide as we walked through the town. We had already asked quite a few residents if they needed any help with anything, but every time they just waved us off saying they had nothing to do today.

"Ok. Mari, how much longer until we get out of this town?"

Mari shrugged. "W-well, I know if we just keep walking down this path, w-we'll reach a small wooded area shortly."

Suddenly we heard a commotion coming from a nearby shop. All of us stopped at what we saw. "Hey! Get out of here you runt!" Someone shouted angrily from inside the enclosed shopping stand as a treeco suddenly flew out of it with a grunt, bouncing and sliding to a stop just outside. A small fedora also flew out of the shop, hitting the rather small gecco in the head.

My face scrunched up in anger, as if involuntarily, as I ran towards the treeco. Once I reached him, I looked between him and the shopkeeper, a rather annoyed looking monferno. I noticed that the treeco had a scorch mark as well as a large bruise on his belly. "Hey! What's the big idea!? Why'd you do that to this kid!?" I shouted at the shopkeeper angrily.

The shopkeeper looked up from his counter to stare at me. "And just who are you? The runt's mommy? Listen, that little twerp's been a nuisance around town and I won't stand for him coming into my shop and ruining my business."

"What'd you say?!" I shouted as I started to approach the stand, but a hand on my hind leg stopped me.

I turned around to face the treeco. "No, it's ok ma'am. This happens a lot. Please don't cause trouble." The treeco said, picking himself up.

I sighed and turned around fully as the others showed up. "That's right. Now buzz off. I've got business to attend to." The shopkeeper said once more as I rolled my eyes.

"Hey Eve, what's up?" Mari asked me as she ran up.

"Nothing much. Just defending this kid from some jerky salesman." I replied. "So hey. What's your name?" I asked the treeco as he dusted his fedora off and placed it back on his head.

"O-oh. Uhh...my name's Harry. T-thanks for trying to help by the way. I don't get much of that..."

"Eh, it's nothing. I just can't stand jerks like that." I shrugged it off, trying to forget about the salesman. "So what's a kid like you doing out alone getting kicked out of shops?"

Harry looked at me funny. "Kid? I'm not a kid!" He shouted at me, looking a bit annoyed. "Though as to why I'm alone, I...just don't have any friends."

"Ok. But what about family?"

Harry just looked down. "I uhh... I never really met my family. Like you said, I'm alone."

My eyes widened. "You never even met them?"

He shook his head. "I do suppose it has an upside though. I get to go wherever I want... Though to be honest, I seem to get into some kind of trouble wherever I go." He paused, seemingly examining our group. "I've never seen you guys around here before. Are you explorers?"

"Haha! Yep! You're looking at super awesome explorers from Wigglytuff's Guild! And one day, I'm gonna be the greatest explorer in the world!" I shouted enthusiastically.

He seemed to shrink away at my enthusiasm. "W-Wigglytuff's guild huh? You mean the one that everyone talks about? I've always wanted to go apprentice there, but as I've said, I could never find any friends to help me do it."

Mari stepped in. "Hmm..." She inspected Harry, which ended up making him rather nervous. She smiled after a couple seconds of this. "Well then, in that case. I have an open space in my team. How about it?"

Harry seemed surprised. "A-an open w-whaa? You don't even know me!"

Mari smirked. "Nope, but I'm smart enough to recognize a fellow pick pocket when I see one. Fork over the zippo." She held out her paw.

Harry seemed shocked this time. "What?! H-how did you?! I... Ugh... Fine." He gave in as he pulled a small lighter on a string out of his hat and returned it to Mari.

"Someone as skilled as you would make a great addition to my team. We specialize in trickery after all." Mari laughed. "No one's ever been able to get something off of me."

Harry smiled. "Well it is the only way I can have fun and survive around here... That and pulling pranks."

"Pranks! Yeah!" I exclaimed.

Harry looked weirded out yet again. "She's the weird one isn't she?"

"Hey!"

"Well... I guess I can go with you. I don't really have much else to do here. Plus, I'd be going to Wigglytuff's Guild..." He smiled. "Though I'm not sure how well I'll do with meeting new people..."

Mari laughed. "Alright, then it's settled! This patrol test is officially over and I just found me a new teammate." She declared. "Now let's get out of this town. Seriously, the stares are giving me the creeps."

I looked around. People were still staring us down like we had committed some terrible crime. "You're right! We should go! See ya!" I shouted as I raced off towards the forest that could just be seen over the horizon.

* * *

**5:00pm, Guildmaster's Chamber:**

"Evelyn you liar!" I shouted comically as I ran into Wigglytuff's chamber. She looked towards me with a look of puzzlement as I slid to a stop right in front of her. "You can't hide it from me. I know all about your secret." I said as I pointed an accusing paw at her.

"Eve child. What're you talking about? What secret?" She asked me, looking completely baffled.

"Oh I think you know what I'm talking about." I stared her down for a second before jumping at her with a hug. "You're my aunt! How could you not tell me?!" I laughed. "And you're a super famous explorer. Even better!"

"W-what? H-how did you find out about that? No one was supposed to say a word." Evelyn said in surprise. "Wait a minute. Did you talk to Martha? Oh of course you did. She never listens to agreements..."

I looked up at her. "Why do we always have secret family members?"

Evelyn smiled at me. "So I'm guessing you know you're royalty now?"

I nodded. "Yep, though I don't really care much about all of that stuff. I want to explore."

We were suddenly interrupted by Chatot, who also seemed a bit surprised. "Excuse me?! Royalty?! You're trying to say that Eve here is actually of the Grace Family?!"

I let go of Evelyn and smirked at him. "Yep!"

He just rolled his eyes. "I guess that explains it then... Your mother being a sylveon. And why your last name is so secretive. I just dismissed these as coincidences, but..."

"Oh my last name? We just don't like putting it on things. Takes to much time."

Chatot just sighed. "Well for a princess, you certainly are quite the weird one I suppose. Regardless, where is your team? Did you up and leave them behind again?"

"No, not this time at least." Alex answered for me, walking up from behind me. I did a double-take. 'How did he keep up with me?'

"The others should be here shortly. She actually did leave them behind." He sighed.

Evelyn laughed. "Well then, no sense in waiting. You've passed!"

"Passed? But Mari's not even here yet. You said she was monitoring us."

"Well yes, but if you had failed, she would've just returned here on her own." She explained. "Seeing as she's not here, and you left her behind somewhere away from the guild, I'd say you didn't fail. Congratulations, your team is now properly licensed to work on patrol routes. Normally I'd upgrade your badges, but it seems as though one of your members has already surpassed that." She said, looking at Alex with interest.

"Alrighty then! Now that that's over, it's time to pick friends for the expedition!" Wigglytuff exclaimed just as happily as ever, standing up and walking over to us. "Quickly! Quickly! Into the other room! We've got to call an assembly!" He exclaimed again as he ushered us out of the room.

Once back in the other room, Chatot went off to inform everyone about the assembly. We made our way to our spots and talked for a few minutes before everyone rushed in and filed in around us. It seemed that Austin and Ally were among them as they quickly made their way over to join us.

"Finally showed up did ya?" I smirked at Austin.

He rolled his eyes. "Please. If everyone had to keep up with you when you take off, we'd fail every mission we take on. It's better to just send Alex after you."

"Yeah yeah. Whatever. All I'm focused on right now is getting picked for this expedition."

My attention was drawn to the front of the room by the sound of Chatot clearing his throat. "Ahem. Attention everyone." He called everyone's attention as he held out a piece of paper. "Here on this sheet of paper I have the members of the guild that our guildmaster has chosen to accompany us on this year's expedition. Now let's see..."

Chatot looked as if he were straining to read what was on the paper. 'Geez. Is Wigglytuff's handwriting really that bad?'

He suddenly turned to the guildmaster with a confused look on his face. "Umm, excuse me. Guildmaster? This paper seems to pair guild members into groups." He scanned the piece of parchment again. "And everyone is on it! Guildmaster, what is this?"

Wigglytuff smiled widely. "Well it's the group assignment of course! See, I was sitting awake in the middle of the night trying to come up with who should go, when I finally saw how boring choosing the members was. So I decided to skip it and let everyone go instead! This is who everyone will be paired with to get to the expedition sight! Isn't that fun?!"

Upon hearing this news, Chatot jumped back in shock. All of the other members shot their attention towards the pink ball himself.

'Everyone's going?! Wait a minute... Yes!' I was practically jumping with excitement at this new revelation.

"What?! B-but guildmaster. You can't honestly be considering leaving the guild unattended."

Wigglytuff simply shrugged. "Oh don't be so worried friend! We can just lock this place up super tight. And if that doesn't work, I have Eve's parents to help out!"

Chatot looked troubled. "Eve's parents? ...Fine. I guess they should be capable of protecting the place..." He sighed as he turned back to us. "Regardless, these are the groups for the expedition. Group one; Alex, Eve and Bidoof. Group two; Austin, Ally, Riley and Connor. Group three; Drew, Flare, Luke, Esuna. And it seems that the rest of the groups will correspond to normal team structure. Now, it's getting late so you should hurry up and convene with your group before heading out. I would advise you find a good route and resting point for tonight. Even if you were chosen, you still need to make it on time. If everything is clear, you are dismissed."

I turned to Alex and hugged him. "Yes! This is so awesome! I finally get to explore something real!" I stayed like that for a while before pulling back with a red face. "Sorry..."

"So I guess we'll be traveling together then." Bidoof stated as he walked up from behind Alex. "I really hope I don't slow you guys down..."

"Hey! Don't worry about it. This is gonna be so awesome! Just try hard and you'll be awesome!" I encouraged him. "So Bidoof, Alex and I are gonna go prepare, so we'll see you in a few minutes, ok?"

He nodded and we walked off to find the others.

* * *

**6:00pm, Grace Family House:**

So by 'prepare', I actually meant 'confront my parents about this whole royalty thing'. "Hey Mom! Dad! Quick, there's something I need to talk to you about!" I shouted out loud as we entered the house.

Not even a second passed before they came running into the living room, looking worried. "What is it Eve?!" Mom asked, looking quite anxious. I felt kind of guilty about that.

"Oh, well I-"

I was cut off when Mom let out a sudden gasp, then a sigh. "You know don't you? About being royalty?"

I gave her a confused look. "Umm, yeah. How did you know?"

"That necklace. It was my grandmother's, and the family's crest. How did you find out?"

I shrunk back a little. "Well, we kinda got arrested. Eheheh."

Mom sighed. "Of course... Well then, I guess there's no reason to hide anything anymore. Sit down and we'll tell you everything. Shade might not be working alone."


	10. Ex: The Day it Happened

 

* * *

**Grace Family House, Eve's POV:**

After a long day of missions, Chatot had given us the OK to take a break, so we left for home and hung back in the living room, either conversing, reading or practicing magic. The whole thing would've been great, except I had no one to talk to... Alex had recently developed an interest for magic, so he (like Austin) was currently absorbed in a random book on the topic. I sighed. I guess it couldn't be helped. Magic wasn't just some boring everyday topic, and Alex wasn't a wizard. Unlike most of us, Alex was very curious about knowledge. I decided just to leave him be...for now.

I sighed yet again and stared down at our treasure bag. Besides a bit of dirt around its sides, there wasn't much wrong with it yet. We were still pretty new at exploring... I grabbed my bow and smiled to myself. 'But with him at my side, there's no way I won't achieve my goal...'

I started rummaging through the bag on impulse, like I did quite often (probably a symptom of ADHD), and stopped when something soft brushed by my paw. Frowning, I took a moment to paw at it before finally pulling the soft object out of the back. What it turned out to be made me smile. 'I can't believe it hasn't wilted.' I thought as I stared at the gracidea flower my mother had given me when I was born. Of course I knew it would never wilt, given it had been sprayed down with an everlasting preservation spray, but the thought of it was still amazing.

My smile deepened a bit. 'Heh, seeing this flower again brings back those old memories... But why?' I asked myself internally as I wiped a silent tear from my cheek. My smile dropped with a solitary thought. 'Why is it I can never forget that moment?'

* * *

***Flashback - 12 years***

Hunched down in the grass, my tiny body was hidden from view as I peered up and ahead at the tiny figure that was my sister. I snickered as I silently inched forward, careful not to make my presence known to my target. Once in range, I lowered down slightly on my front legs and raised up on my hind legs, wagging my tail as I did so, as if to stalk a victim. Then, after a moment of suspenseful silence, I pounced up and out of the grass towards my sister, who in turn turned just in time to let out a small frightened scream as I tackled her to the ground. We tumbled over each other on the ground for a second before finally bumping into something...too bad that 'something' was our mom.

My sister finally opened her eyes and frowned, glaring at me. "Mom! Eve's pulling tricks on me again!"

I laughed. "Oh come on, it was just a joke Ally. It's not my fault you get scared so easily." I teased her. She huffed and stuck her tongue out at me, to which I promptly did the same.

Our ears perked up at the sound of our mother's laughter. "Alright girls, calm down now. Eve, what did I say about pranking your sister?" Mom asked me, to which I hung my head and sighed. "You're twins, you shouldn't be so mean towards each other. Now, how about you apologize and then go play together in the field. Hmm?"

I sighed. "Ok. I'm sorry I scared you Ally..." I apologized.

Ally smiled understandingly up at me. "It's ok. I guess I can't stay mad at you." She laughed. "Hey, how about instead of playing in the field, we go to the town? Is that ok Mom?" Ally asked Mom, to which she agreed.

"Alright, but on one condition. You two, promise me you won't split up. And don't go past Wigglytuff's stand ok? He can't watch you past that point."

We nodded. "We promise." I stepped off of Ally and we headed for town. "Heh, come on!" I shouted excitedly to Ally as I ran ahead.

"Hey, wait up! Mom said don't split up remember!"

"I know! Ya better catch up if you don't want Mom to get mad!" I laughed as I continued running.

* * *

**Pokemon Square:**

Wigglytuff was one of the pokemon of the square that our mom trusted to keep watch over us when we wanted to go to the town ourselves. He owned a shop that sold something called friend areas or whatever. I think our parents knew him because they made a rescue team together.

"Hey Ally? So how hard do you think al of this rescue work out parents do is anyway? They really seem to like it." I asked my sister, noting that she had finally managed to catch up.

Ally tilted her head. "Well I don't really know. They say it's kind of easy once you get used to it. And fun too! You get to travel and go to all of these unique places! Plus you get to help people. I think it's cool!" Ally smiled joyously.

A jolt of excitement ran through my body. "You mean you get to go on adventures? Awesome! I knew Mom and Dad left to go places sometimes, but I didn't know they did that!"

Ally laughed. "Yeah, but it's more than that. Mom said the job of a rescue team is to help the people who are are in need because of the natural disasters. It's not just some silly adventuring game Eve."

I waved my paw at her. "Yeah yeah yeah. Something about helping people. All I know is I want to be someone awesome someday!"

Ally frowned at me as we kept walking. "So why'd ya wanna come here anyway Ally? I thought you didn't like to go to the town without Mom or Dad."

Ally narrowed her eyes. "Hey! What're you trying to say?!" She complained with suspicion. "For your information, I'm tired of being stuck in that forest all the time. We barely ever get to come here."

"Well, what do you want to do? We can't just do nothing. I'm already getting bored." I complained as we crossed the border into the square.

"My my, if it isn't little Ally and Eve!" A familiar kind voice cried out from our left. I turned my head to find that it belonged to Keckleon.

I did a little unintentional hop and smiled. "Oh, hi Keckleon!"

"Hello you two!" Keckleon's brother, Psy also greeted us. "Tell me, how are your parents doing? I noticed they haven't been taking many missions lately. For such great explorers it's quite surprising, though I guess they do have you guys to take care of."

Ally nodded. "I guess they might want to spend more time with us. They used to have to leave us with Lucario when they went on long missions."

I put my paw to my chest proudly. "Well it doesn't matter. Pretty soon I'm gonna form a better team than even them and go on tons of adventures!"

Ally sighed. "Eve, do you even know how to form a rescue team?"

I thought about her question for a second before dropping my head and sulking. "Ugh, no... Thanks for bringing that up Ally. Next you'll be saying that I'm too young to form a team..."

Keckleon and Psy laughed. "You're certainly a bold one, aren't you Eve?" Keckleon complemented.

"I wouldn't worry about that young one. You'll have plenty of time to build a great team once you're a bit older." Psy encouraged. "In fact, I don't think your parents were officially a team until way after they were old enough."

I laughed. "That sure sounds like them alright! So that's it! I'm gonna form a super awesome team right when I get old enough. It'll be the best team it the world!"

Ally sighed. "You and your big dreams. Eve, we've got to go now. Mom and Dad'll be worried."

"You sure they're worried, or you are?" I teased her.

"What? I am not! I'm the one who suggested we come here in the first place!" Ally protested with a huff.

Knowing how much of a mama's girl Ally was, I decided to humor her. "Alright alright. We'll go back. See ya later Keckleon, Psy!"

* * *

***Back in Evolution Forest:**

"Mom! Dad! We're back!" I yelled as we approached our house. As soon as they exited, Ally bolted towards Mom and hugged her.

I sighed. Ally couldn't stand to be away from Mom for a long time, even if she didn't want to admit it.

"Hey Eve, hurry over here. We've got something to tell you two!" Dad called out to us.

"I'm coming!" I let him know as I dashed over. Once I reached them, Ally let go of Mom and we sat down together to listen.

"Ok, so listen you two. Tomorrow your mother and I will be going out on an important mission, so we'll be gone for a while. We've contacted Lucario, so he should be on his way here to watch you two tomorrow. Make sure you listen to him, ok?" Dad informed us.

I sighed. "A mission? Aww... Why can't we come too?"

Mom walked up to me and ruffled the fur on top of my head. "Oh sweetie, we wish we could, but it's dangerous. We'll be back as soon as we can. I promise."

"Yeah yeah..."

"Oh cheer up sweetie." Mom laughed as she wrapped her ribbons around me and hugged me. "We'll take you somewhere when we get back. How about that?"

I looked up at her with excitement. "Really?!" She nodded. "Yay! Thank you Mom!" I exclaimed as I hugged her back.

"Well we'll be leaving tonight in order to meet with our client, so you two keep out of trouble while we're gone ok? Lucario should be here in the morning." Dad asked us as Mom released me.

We both nodded. "Ok Dad."

* * *

**Late That Night:**

It was late at night and I was still wide awake, just staring up at the ceiling. Mom and Dad had already left for their mission, so it was just me and Ally for the night, but I just didn't feel tired for some reason. I turned over to look at Ally, who was fast asleep over in her bed. I sighed. "Someday..."

My ears suddenly perked up at a faint sound that I couldn't make out. At first I thought it was just the wind, but then the ground started to shake slightly. My eyes widened with shock as I bolted up from my bed towards Ally and shook her awake. "Ally! Come on, wake up!"

Ally began to stir just as the shaking started to increase in intensity. "Nngh... Eve? Why are you waking me-"

"Just get up! Hurry! There's an earthquake!" I shouted at her as I reached down and pulled her to her feet myself. "Come on! We can't be in here!"

"Earthquake?! What?! We can't go out there! We'll-"

I pushed her forward with my paw. "Ally, if we don't get out of the house it's going to fall down on us! Just go!" I shouted at her.

That time she listened as we both bolted out the door of the small house, only to collapse just outside of it near the mailbox. "Ally, are you ok?"

Ally nodded as she tried to stand up, but the force of the earth shaking was too great, making her collapse again. "Yeah, but Eve-"

Suddenly, the sound of crumbling rock filled the air as we covered our ears and looked back at the house, which now lie in rubble on the ground in front of us.

We just laid there huddled together in fear for the next few minutes before the ground's shaking started to gradually come to a stop. Once it finally did, Ally and I both stood up shakily and looked around. "E-Eve? W-where's Mom and Dad?"

I sighed. "Ally, they went off on a mission remember?" I reminded her, but to be honest I was kind of shaken as well. "We just need to wait until Lucario shows up in the morning. He'll figure out where we can stay until they get back." So for the next half hour, we just rested under a tree that we found near the house.

* * *

**Half an Hour Later:**

"Ally?! Eve?!" Shouted someone from off to the side. I turned to see Lucario running up to us.

"Lucario?" We stood as he walked up to us. "I thought you weren't coming until the morning."

"Well yes, but when I got called here for an earthquake search party, I came running. Have you seen your parents?" He asked us, looking pretty worried.

"Uhh, no... They left on a mission a long time ago. Didn't they tell you?" I asked him, to which his worried look only intensified. "Lucario? Who's the search party for?" I asked him, a chill going down my spine as he didn't answer. "Lucario! Who's the search party for!" I shouted at him this time, in hopes that he would answer, but he didn't. "Lucario?"

He sighed heavily. "Ally, Eve... There's... bad news. I'm... I'm sorry..."

At that, my heart sank into my stomach as tears started streaming down my face. "No! Lucario! You...you're lying!" At this point, Ally had also broken into tears.

Lucario just shook his head as I started backing away slowly. "No! But...but you have to be! They...they can't..." I kept backing away until my foot hit a rock, causing me to tumble backwards and roll onto my stomach as I broke out into a fit of sobs. "Mom... Dad..."

* * *

***End of Flashback***

"Ya just gonna stare at that flower all night Eve?" Alex laughed, thus tearing me away from my thoughts.

I looked up at him. "Heh, no. I guess not. I was just... Thinking..." I sighed as I held my head low.

"You ok?" He asked me, noticing my depressed look.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. It's just that I can't get the moment my parents disappeared on us out of my head..."

"Oh..." He put his arm around me, making me blush slightly. "Well then. How about we just talk? Will that keep your mind off of it?" He smiled.

I looked up at him and smiled as well. "Yeah... I think that would."


	11. An Interesting Leader!

 

* * *

**_What like passion to bring about the spark in the soul that burns with courage and the necessity for adventure?_ **

* * *

**6:00pm, Grace Family House, Eve's POV:**

Ok, so my parents might've let it slide when I told them that we got arrested, but apparently when I told them that we didn't have time to listen about Shade, that was a problem.

"What do you mean you can't stay to listen? This is important Eve! You could be in danger!" Mom insisted.

"Well sorry, but we're about to leave for the expedition and Chatot's expecting us back any minute. Eheheh. We were just wondering why you never told us we were royalty..." I explained, feeling rather awkward.

Mom sighed. "I guess it can wait. Knowing Chatot, you won't want to keep him waiting. He'll talk your ears off." She laughed. "As to why we didn't tell you, we had to keep you from exploring too much into your past to protect you. If you had found out, you most likely would've wanted to visit your grandparents, which would've made you an easy target for Shade. Also...we wanted to give you a normal childhood. It can be rather boring growing up in a castle. That much I learned from my own grandmother."

"Ok, I guess that makes sense... But Mom, about Evelyn. What scared you so much about the dark magic typing she had?"

From the surprised look on her face, I got the feeling that I forgot to mention I knew about Evelyn. "Who told you about Evelyn?!"

"Aunt Martha..."

She sighed. "Of course... And to be honest, there really wasn't a good reason why I did what I did to Evelyn. I made a stupid mistake because of a stereotype about dark magic, and ever since then I've regretted it. When Evelyn visited me earlier, I broke down and apologized. She's my twin, and I missed her."

"So you made up already?" I asked hopefully.

She nodded. "Yes, we did. Don't worry about it sweetie."

I sighed in relief. "That's good I guess..."

Austin stepped up afterwards. "Well I'd really like to hear about this news about Shade. Tell us immediately when we get back. If Shade is working with someone else, he might be more dangerous than we though." He speculated. "In any case, we've got to head out team! Alex, Eve. You two should go meet up with Bidoof. The rest of us will get into our own groups and head out separately. I assume we've all chosen our routes, so let's go!" With that, we all nodded at each other and went our separate ways.

* * *

**Crossroads:**

A few minutes after leaving the house, we met up with Bidoof at the crossroads to discuss our route to the expedition site, which was set just before an area called Foggy Forest. From there we'd proceed to search for the legendary lake, Fogbound Lake.

"So we should take this route then. Pretty simple, not too difficult. Just a few simple dungeons along the way." Alex thought out loud as he examined our chosen route.

"Well wouldn't it be easier if we chose a route through towns instead of dungeons? That's what the others are doing." Bidoof offered, but I waved my paw at him.

"Nah, that's too boring. If we want to be true explorers, we can't just take it easy all the time. We've gotta work to get there. Besides, I heard that Wigglytuff and Chatot are doing this too. Plus, exploring is fun! It'd be awesome if we found something cool before the expedition even started!" I exclaimed excitedly.

Bidoof sighed. "Alex, did the guild just get another Wigglytuff?"

Alex laughed. "It would seem that way."

I gave them a mocking smile. "Hah hah, very funny. Can we get going now? I feel like I'm literally gonna burst from the anticipation."

They both laughed. "Alright Eve, let's go." Alex agreed as he started to lead us out of town, but I walked in front of him.

"Not this time Alex! It's my turn to lead!" I declared as I held my paw up to him defiantly.

He laughed. "Ok then Eve. Lead the way. We're headed north-east. You should check the compass if you're not sure which way that is."

I thought for a second before giving in to that and checking the compass. "Oh ok. Let's go guys!" I exclaimed as I started heading off in the direction the compass depicted.

"Eve, it's your other north-east." Alex commented.

"Oh yeah!" I replied as I quickly changed directions and we left for our first stop.

* * *

Outside Dungeon - Craggy Coast:

After a while of walking, we arrived at a huge, mountain-like structure overlooking the sea. In fact, if someone were to fall into the water from the height of this thing, they'd probably never be seen again.

That's what made me cringe when Alex stepped up to the edge to observe the area at least. I sighed when he stepped away and walked back to us. "Looks like the route we took leads up along the ocean coast for a bit." He turned towards an opening in the rock structure ahead of us, which seemed to be a cave. "And I'm assuming that's a mystery dungeon. Craggy Coast as marked on the map. There's bound to be some water type pokemon in there due to its proximity to the sea."

I ran up to the entrance to the cave with a look of pure excitement and stared into it, careful not to get pulled in by accident. My excited look soon changed to one of confusion as I noticed two different paths in the cave. "Hey guys! There's two different dungeons in this cave!"

Alex walked up next to me and examined it as well. "That's weird...either this map is outdated or one of these paths is a detour, meaning it'll lead us back here..."

"Ok, well which one do you think is that craggy place or whatever? They look the same to me..." I said as I looked intently between the two.

"Same with me. Guess we'll have to guess." Alex suggested.

I raised my paw. "No...wait a minute... It's this one." I said confidently as I pointed to the one on the right.

Alex looked at me a bit unsure. "Are you sure Eve? You just said you can't tell the difference."

I shook my head. "No, I said they look the same... And I don't know... It just feels right..."

Alex smiled. "Alright then, you're the leader. Come on Bidoof, we're continuing."

"Wait a minute, you're really going with the one I chose?" I asked him, slightly surprised.

Alex smiled. "Well of course. You wanted to be the leader, so what you say goes. Being the leader means you have to make decisions that are best for the team though. Remember that."

I laughed. "Right! Well let's go then! Let's start this expedition!" I exclaimed as I ran into the dungeon.

* * *

**Inside Dungeon - Craggy Coast:**

I received quite a few complaints from my teammates as we appeared on the first floor of the dungeon. Apparently, Alex and Bidoof didn't enter at the same time as me, causing them to get teleported in where they promptly plopped onto the rocky ground.

"Ugh... Eve honey, I know you're excited about being leader and all, but please slow down..." Alex pleaded, getting up and dusting off his belly.

I grinned and tilted my head at him. "Did you just call me honey?"

Alex immediately froze up, blood rushing to his face as it went bright red with a blush. "I-I uhh..."

I gave him a sly smile as I turned around and flicked my tail at him, hitting him in the face with it in the process. "I guess I might just be hearing things..." I said teasingly before walking ahead. "Come on guys, we've got a dungeon to explore."

* * *

**Alex's POV:**

So after Eve's rather successful attempt at embarrassing me, we actually started making progress in the dungeon. I shrugged it off and started surveying the dungeon. The dungeon seemed to have a damp, rocky landscape with several pools of water littering the floors and passageways. All of the pokemon we came across were either water or ground types.

Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by something tapping me on the arm. I turned to face Bidoof who had a rather inquisitive look on his face. "Oh, what is it Bidoof?"

Upon asking the question, he took a brief glance at Eve before turning back to look at me. "Alex, about what happened back at the entrance. Is there something going on between you and Eve?"

I just stared at him for a few seconds, a bit surprised by the question. Then I allowed myself a small smile and stared ahead at Eve. "Yeah... You could say that..."

"So are you?"

"No. She doesn't know." I replied quickly, knowing what he was getting at.

"Well why don't you tell her? It's obvious she likes you." Bidoof reasoned.

I sighed. "Because she wouldn't want that. Eve's the type of person that depends on overcoming obstacles to become stronger. I think to her, gaining the confidence to confess her feelings is just another one of those obstacles. I know she'll do it too, because she's the most determined person I've ever met."

After hearing that, Bidoof looked ahead again. "You sure care about her a lot then, yup yup." He smiled. After that, not much was said. We traveled through the dungeon without much difficulty, stopping occasionally to take breaks and even to defeat an ambush that cropped up along the way. Near the end of the dungeon however, our progress was interrupted by a large grumbling noise.

Eve and I turned towards Bidoof, who blushed from embarrassment immediately after doing so.

Eve laughed. "Hungry?"

"Eheheh. Yeah, I guess all of the excitement made me hungry..." He replied nervously.

I sighed. "Alright, well we're almost out of the dungeon. How about we set up camp once we clear it?"

Bidoof nodded. "Sounds good to me! Yup yup!"

Eve looked more or less bored by the idea of resting, but nodded reluctantly when she saw how worn out Bidoof was. I honestly think this is the most traveling he's ever done.

"Well then, if we're gonna rest, we have to get up really early so we can get to the camp before anyone else! Let's go guys!" Eve shouted as she ran ahead yet again.

"Wait Eve! You're going the wrong way!" I shouted out to her.

She stopped in her tracks and slowly backtracked without turning around. "Heh, I knew that." She tried to cover as she turned around and dashed off in the correct direction. I simply shook my head as we followed suit. 'What am I going to do with her?'

* * *

**Outside Dungeon:**

"Alright, so how are we gonna start a fire?" Eve asked as we walked out onto a thin rocky strip of land.

I thought for a second before grabbing two decently sized rocks from the surrounding area and presenting them to her. Then I pulled a few sticks out of our treasure bag and arranged them on the ground in a neat pile. "Here, hit these two rocks together near the stick pile. They should create a spark that starts the fire."

Eve of course fumbled with the rocks for a while, having no fingers to grip them and all, but eventually got the hang of it and started striking them together. It wasn't long before a decent fire was started. "Hah! Awesome! I made fire with rocks!"

I smiled at her enthusiasm. "Yeah, especially since you ended up smashing the first couple sets." I laughed. "And now you know another thing a leader should know in order to help the team."

Eve looked as if a lightbulb had went off in her head. "Oh yeah! Mom and Dad used to talk about this kind of stuff all the time, but I never really paid attention."

I tilted my head. "I thought you loved it when they talked about rescuing."

Eve started drawing circles in the sediment that littered the ground. "Well yeah, but it was always the stories and stuff that I loved. I thought the other stuff was boring, so it didn't really stick in my head I guess." She smiled. "But that was cool! How do you know this stuff anyway?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. Never really thought about it." After a few seconds of silence, I turned to see that Bidoof had finished messing with an odd stone off in the distance and made his way back to us. "Hey Bidoof. What were you doing over there?"

"Hmm? Oh! I was just getting some food and supplies out of the Kangaskhan rock over there. They're connected to the storage back in town, so it's easy to access anything you might've stored away while you're traveling."

I gave the rock a thoughtful glance. "Hmm. Sounds useful."

"Alright then, so is everyone ready to eat, cause I'm starting to get hungry too. Where's the Sitrus Berries?" Eve asked with a tinge of excitement in her voice as Bidoof sat down.

I mentally laughed, knowing how much she loved Sitrus Berries. I made sure to pack extra just for her. "I have some right here Eve." I smiled as I reached into the bag and pulled out a couple of the big yellow berries and handed them to her.

She had downed them within seconds, earning a laugh from both me and Bidoof. "Can I have some more please?"

I nodded with an amused smile as I handed her a couple more and we began eating as well.

* * *

**Back at Wigglytuff's Guild, Austin's POV:**

"What do you mean they already left?!" Chatot exclaimed as he flew around the room erratically.

I sighed. "Just that. Eve's group left for the base camp about an hour ago. Pretty simple."

With that news, Chatot stopped flying and landed in front of us with a huff. "You'd think it'd be easy to follow directions. Anyway, thank you for coming to see me to approve your route before you leave. It's certainly one of the longer routes, but there doesn't seem to be anything that'll take you out of your way. I'll approve it then." Chatot confirmed. "By the way, I believe Mrs. Evelyn would like to see you. She's waiting for you out by the crossroads. You are dismissed." With that, he hopped off towards Wigglytuff's chamber.

I turned to my group. "Alright guys, let's go see what Evelyn wants."

Ally sighed. As we started to head for the exit. "Seems like there's always something going on nowadays."

"Yeah, and half the time I'm not there to see it." Connor complained.

Riley laughed. "Hey, at least you got to be here. I have no idea what's going on. Speaking of which, how do you guys know Esuna? I mean, I know she knew Ally and Eve, but how did Luke meet Esuna?"

"It was at Marowak's arena. One glance at her and Luke was lovesick." Ally laughed.

Riley looked amused. "That bad huh? Wow! I never thought Esuna could be such a girl."

Ally looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"Well usually Esuna's all tomboyish and rough around guys and stuff, but with Luke it's like she's some whole different person. She must really like him." He deducted. "It's about time too. She needed something to keep her mind off of her parents until they can get back."

Now she looked even more confused. "Wait a minute. Get back?"

"Yeah. Since there's no longer any crazy natural disasters to worry about, Ninetales is trying to convince the council to let her come back. I don't really know much about it though."

"Oh... Well we're almost to the crossroads. Let's not keep Evelyn waiting." Ally stated as we nodded and hurried ahead.

* * *

**7:30pm, Crossroads:**

We spotted Evelyn immediately upon arriving at the crossroads. Once she noticed us, she smiled and approached. "Hello again Austin and Ally. I trust Eve's doing well?"

I nodded. "Yeah, she's doing fine. She managed to annoy Chatot again by skipping out on getting their route to the base camp approved."

Evelyn laughed. "That sounds like her alright."

"So what did you want us here for anyway?"

Evelyn smiled. "Well this actually has to do with the matter of the swords my sister and her husband presented to you and Alex."

I frowned slightly. "The swords? Well shouldn't you be talking to Alex then? He uses his more than I do mine."

"Hmm..." Evelyn pondered. "Then perhaps you'll have to exchange swords with him after this if he's up for it. Or I guess in this case, Ally will."

Ally and I just rolled our eyes at the comment.

"Anyway, I'm not going to go into much detail, but there's another sanctum not too far off from the route that you've chosen to take. You'll find what I'm talking about there."

Riley looked more or less overwhelmed. "Swords? Sanctums? You guys sure have been busy with the weird stuff."

I sighed. I didn't know how much Esuna had told him about magic, but Riley seemed a bit out of the loop with it. I couldn't blame him though. It really was weird. "So where exactly is this sanctum?"

Evelyn smiled and took out a map. Placing it down and unrolling it, she proceeded to point to a specific spot on it. "This is the general area where the sanctum lies. It shouldn't be too hard for you to find on your way to the base camp."

I nodded, taking quick note of the location she had pointed at.

She put her map back up and walked around us towards the town. "Well I don't want to hold you up. You should get going. As for me, I think I'll go catch up with my sister. I'll see you four when you get back." She said as she walked off waving a farewell.

I turned back to the group. "Alright guys, I believe that's all we have left to do here. Let's go."

"She has a sister?" Riley asked, a bit clueless.

I sighed as I walked up to him. "I'll explain it to you later man."

* * *

**Castello Town:**

So our first stop in our route to the base camp was going to be Castello town, which of course is in the vicinity of the new sanctum. Coincidence? One thing's for sure. Evelyn gave us some pretty discrete directions.

"So is this sanctum invisible or did Evelyn just want us to spend half the night finding it?" Connor complained, crossing his arms as he did so.

"Relax Connor." I sighed. "Besides, you're not a wizard, so technically it would be invisible to you." At that moment, I remembered something crucial about sanctums...they had puzzles. "Guys, we have a problem!"

Ally looked to me with confusion. "What is it Austin?"

"We don't have Alex with us!" I exclaimed.

Connor looked rather unamused. "Well I'd hardly call that a problem.

"Are you kidding me? It's a big problem! Alex is our puzzle solver."

Connor sighed. "You'd think our leader could handle more than solving a few little puzzles. Meanwhile we're wasting time."

"Wait a minute, I'm lost. What puzzles?" Riley stepped in, looking a bit overwhelmed.

I shook my head in an attempt to recollect myself and turned around. "You'll find out when we get there. Speaking of which, we need to hurry up and find it." I turned to Ally. "Ally, do you think you'll be able to use my sword?"

She shrugged. "Well I've never been able to actually grasp anything, so I'm not really sure how well I'll manage."

I nodded. "I'll teach you on the way."

* * *

**1 hour later, Connor's POV:**

After about an hour of walking, we decided to take a break near a lake we had encountered along the way. Austin was currently teaching Ally how to use his sword, and Riley, letting his curiosity get the best of him, had actually jumped into the lake, only to receive an unpleasant surprise from the freezing cold water. As for me, I was busy looking for this sanctum. Even though I wouldn't be able to see it, I was getting a bit impatient about this detour, and this wasn't exactly my preferred group to travel with. Not that I had a problem with Austin. I just wanted to be with Eve.

My thoughts were soon interrupted by a chilling splash of water. I flipped around and glared at Riley. "Hey! What was that for?!"

He just shrugged. "Wasn't me!"

"Oh really? Then who was it? You're the only one in the-" A sphere of water suddenly rose out of the surface of the lake and flew towards me, slamming me straight in the face. "Lake..."

Riley immediately burst out into laughter at my expense, but I could care less at the moment considering the situation. 'Where did that come from?'

"I'll be back." I stated as I dove into the freezing cold waters of the lake. Surprisingly, the water was clear, unlike its appearance on the surface. Being an oshawott, I could see perfectly down here. I kept swimming for a while until something red caught my eye at the bottom of the lake. It was glowing in an odd way, which made it quite unfitting compared to everything else around it.

I swam down towards the bottom near where the red object was and searched around until I could make it out clearly. It was a rather large, perfectly cut red diamond that was producing a strange aura. I smiled as I picked up my discovery and checked around some more. The sanctum just had to be down here.

As if on cue, a rather ancient looking stone structure faded in and out of view, as if it were some sort of mirage. 'Bingo.'

I took one last glance back at the structure before swimming back up to the surface with my treasure.

Once I reached the surface, I flew straight out of the water and landed in front of Austin, getting him wet in the process.

He turned and glared at me. "Connor, stop fooling around!"

"Who said I was fooling around?" I asked as I held up the strange gem. "I found this at the bottom of the lake, which by the way is where the sanctum is hidden."

"Is that a red diamond? That thing's huge!" Ally exclaimed. "And what do you mean the sanctum is down there?"

"When I was down there, I saw a stone structure fading in and out of sight. I would guess that meant I was just out of range of the sanctum. Just close enough to see it, but yet not close enough to see it completely." I explained.

"Well what about the gem? And how are we supposed to explore an underwater sanctum?" Austin questioned.

"I don't think this diamond has anything to do with the sanctum. As for exploring it, I think you only have to worry about getting down there. Since it's supposedly enchanted, I'm sure the sanctum's full of air." I explained as I handed him the diamond, which he placed safely inside the treasure bag.

"Alright then, let's get swimming."

* * *

**Flooded Sanctum, Austin's POV:**

It took us a while to actually get down to the sanctum. The main reason being that I couldn't quite figure out how to swim with a quadrupedal body. Anyway, after a bit of struggling, we eventually made it down and into the sanctum. Surprisingly once we entered, we were standing on a dry stone floor with no water around us.

"Ugh... Now I know why Eve hates it when her fur gets wet. I feel like a mop..." I complained as I attempted to shake the water out of my fur.

Ally laughed at my not so successful attempt. "Looks like I'll have to teach you something else now."

I nodded as I stood up. "Yeah, but you can do that later. We should move on and see what we've got to deal with next."

With that, we set off walking down the ancient stone corridor. Our trip didn't last long however, as we came across a huge chasm just a few minutes in. The chasm seemed to go down forever, and stretched far too long to jump.

"Well what do we do now? There's no way we can cross that." Riley questioned.

I sat down and thought for a second. 'Why would an impassible chasm be inside of a sanctum?'

"Hey Austin! I found something over here!" Connor shouted from the corner of the room, tearing me away from my thoughts.

I looked his way to find him standing near the far left wall, staring at it intensely. I tilted my head before standing up and walking over to him. "What is it? Something written on the wall?"

Connor shook his head. "No, there's something attached to the wall. It looks like a switch of some kind." He replied as he pointed to said 'switch'.

"Hmm..." I sounded as I studied it. It really did look like a switch. It was a slightly curved, square block that jutted out slightly from the wall. It even looked similar to the stone that composed the walls. "Well we'll never know unless we push it."

Connor looked at me a bit unsure. "Are you sure? What if it's some kind of trap?"

I sighed. "Well it's the only thing around. I don't think we have much of a choice." I replied as I placed a paw on the button and pushed on it. It took quite a bit of effort, but I finally managed to push it in.

Immediately the ground began to rumble as a rushing sound rang out from somewhere down in the chasm. After a couple of minutes, the chasm was completely full of water.

"Ok, so I'll admit it. I was expecting a bridge." I admitted as I examined the now water filled chasm. At the center of the chasm there was now a small platform floating on the surface on the water. However, it was still too far to jump to, and I didn't think swimming to it would work, since it would probably flip over if we tried to climb onto it. "So what are we supposed to do now?"

Riley sighed. "Well while you guys are figuring this out, I'm just gonna sit down and rest." He said as he walked towards the far right wall and sat against it.

My ear twitched at an odd clicking sound as the surface of the water started to gently move towards us in a smooth current. The platform moved with it as well, coming increasingly closer to us until it was right at the chasm's edge. 'Hmm...' "Hey Riley! Lean forward a bit!"

"Hmm?" Riley sounded as he leaned forward to look at me. I heard the odd clicking sound yet again as the water current stopped.

"Hey Riley. Is there anything behind you?" I asked him.

He turned around. "Yeah. There's a lever or something. Why?"

'So that's why...' "Alright everyone, get on the platform. I've got an idea."

As everyone got onto the platform, I walked over to the 'lever' and examined it. It seemed to be able to be pushed up or down. I assumed Riley had accidentally pushed it down when he sat against it, which caused the water to move towards us, so pushing it up would make it move towards the other side. Without a second thought, I pushed the lever up and sprinted towards the platform, jumping onto it with the others before it could move too far away.

"Whew, that was close." I sighed as the platform slowly carried us towards the other side. Once we reached it, we all jumped off the platform and looked around.

Connor smirked. "Who's solving puzzles now?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah yeah. Let's just look for the next one.

'Look' was actually an understatement. As it turned out, we had already found the next 'puzzle'. Right in front of us was a massive stone wall with 5 strange square tiles. There was also what looked to be an equal sized square crater in the wall next to one of the tiles.

Ally walked up to the wall. "Looks like one of those confusing square puzzles you have to shift around until the pieces fit together right."

I scratched my head. "Really? Can you solve it?"

Ally tilted her head at the sight of the puzzle, a bit unsure of it. "I'm not entirely sure. I guess I'll try though." She replied as she touched the top left tile with her paws and attempted to push it into the empty slot. She wasn't having any luck though as the tile refused to move. "Hey Austin. You think you can help me push these things?"

"Sure sweetheart." I replied as I walked over to her and attempted to get up onto my hind paws. After a successful attempt, I began to assist her by pushing on her shoulders. Surely enough, the tile slid right into the slot.

"Ok well that's good and all, but what are we gonna do with with the rest of them? What's the puzzle supposed to make?" Riley complained.

"I think I know. There's a pattern over here on the floor." Connor replied. "Looks like after moving that tile you're supposed to move the top right one to the previous one's position and then move the middle one to the top right."

I turned to him a bit unsure about his reasoning. "You sure that'll work?"

He nodded. "Pretty sure. This is a really simple puzzle actually once you realize that you don't have to move all of the tiles."

I nodded. "Ok then." Ally and I turned around and followed Connor's instructions. Eventually, all of the tiles were in place exactly like the portrait in the floor.

Just after we had fit the last one into its slot, the whole area began to shake as Ally clang to me. I searched all around for the source, but came back to the wall when it began to separate, eventually opening up enough for all of us to walk through as the room stopped shaking. At the end of the new 'hallway' was what looked to be a doorway with light pouring through it.

"Well then, that must be our destination in this place. Let's hurry." I announced as we all hustled towards the new doorway.

Once we passed through the rather large arch that acted as the 'doorway', we entered a dome shaped cylindrical room that seemed to have a glass opening for a ceiling and a grass and flower covered ground. In the center of the room was a rather large circular platform with an odd pattern in it's center. An intense ray of light was shining down in the center of it.

"Well that's certainly interesting..." I said as we scanned the room. Walking up to the platform, I noticed there was a slot in the middle of it just big enough for a sword to fit into it. The slot was bathed in the ray of light from before. "Guess that's where I place your sword?" Ally asked me, a bit unsure about what she should do with the blade. I nodded and she walked over to the slot, sliding the sword into it once she got there.

There was a bright flash as the sword locked into place, and once the light cleared the sword was left transformed and glowing slightly. Ally pulled the sword free of its confinement as it stopped glowing and examined it. "Hey Austin, there's a dial on the hilt now."

"What?" I asked as I ran up to check for myself. Sure enough, where the usual hilt used to be, a 'dial' of sorts had replaced it. If you could call it that of course. It looked like the entire hilt could be twisted. Several symbols lined the hilt on all sides, including that of a snowflake and a thunderbolt. "Hmm... Go ahead and twist it."

Ally twisted the hilt so that the blade aligned with the snowflake symbol, and immediately it started to emit a chilly frost-like mist. "Ok... Should I try swinging it?"

I shrugged. "I don't see why not."

Ally nodded as she pulled the sword back for an underhand slice before swinging it sharply. Surprisingly once she did so a wave of ice was created, continuing along the ground in a thin, long stream until it hit the wall.

"Woah! Is that sword enchanted now?!" I exclaimed as I marveled at the sight. "That was elemental magic, ice type to be exact. Something I haven't learned yet."

Ally turned the hilt back to its original position and re-sheathed it. "You still gonna trade swords with Alex now?"

I nodded. "Yeah. It's cool and all, but I'm not really the sword type. Still, that's a pretty impressive enchantment." I replied. "Come on. We can let Alex try out all of the elements later. We've got to get to the base camp."

"That's good at least. Hopefully on this expedition we can get a break from all of this magic for once."

* * *

**Road to Base Camp, Eve's POV:**

So after a quick rest we made our way through Mt. Horn, which wasn't as hard as I had thought it was going to be. Most of the resident pokemon weren't awake at the time, so we just quietly slipped through unnoticed and continued on our way to the base camp. According to Alex, we were currently a about a mile away from the camp. "Hey Alex, what do you think the others are doing right now?"

Alex shrugged. "Well knowing Austin, his group's probably gotten into trouble with magic by now. I'd say Flare's group is already there. She chose the most direct path. I just hope we're not late. The last thing we need is Chatot scolding us for being late to the base camp meeting."

"Heh, for sure." I laughed. "I just hope everyone hasn't started exploring already. I mean, it'd be awesome if we could solve the mystery ourselves."

Bidoof nodded. "I know what ya mean. I've been trying to impress everyone for a long time. Haven't had much success so far. This is all new to me."

I laughed. "Come on Bidoof, have some determination. Besides, the mystery's up for grabs this time. Who know's what'll happen." Soon a clearing appeared in the horizon and my face widened into an excited smile. "Hah! There it is! Come on guys!" I exclaimed as I bolted ahead, forcing the others to struggle as best as they could to keep up.

Once we arrived however, Chatot and Wigglytuff were the only ones in the clearing, spare for Flare and her group who were gathered over near a Kangaskhan rock. After a moment, Chatot noticed us and approached.

"Hey Chatot! Are we early?!" I asked excitedly. Possibly a bit too excitedly as Chatot produced an annoyed look.

"Early? You're late by three hours! The only portion of your team to get here on time was Flare's group!" Chatot replied, sounding quite annoyed.

"What?! How is that possible?!" I exclaimed.

Chatot sighed. "It doesn't matter how it's possible. Everyone is already out exploring. You best hurry if you want to even have a chance at discovering something." He suggested as he left to rejoin Wigglytuff.

I tapped my paw on the ground impatiently. "What?! Everyone's already exploring and we just got here?!" I turned around to face Alex. "Come on Alex. Let's hurry and join Flare! We've got a lake to find."


	12. Never Forget

 

* * *

**_The most precious moments in life are like photos in an album. Captured and saved, forever instilled in our memories._ **

* * *

**10:00pm, Base Camp, Eve's POV:**

"Hey Flare! How'd you get here so fast?!" I asked the vulpix as I ran up to her. She frowned as she saw me, quite to my confusion.

"You took a dungeon route didn't you?" She asked me as I walked up.

I nodded. "Yeah. The dungeons were pretty easy, but it was pretty fun leading the team through them. Why?"

Her face gained a look of realization. "So that's why you're late." She smiled. "Guess I can't blame you though. You do love exploring."

"Of course. Even if there was a faster route, I still would've chosen the one we took. Exploring dungeons is way more awesome than being early. Especially if I get to be the leader. Maybe I'll just have to take over Austin's role."

Flare and I shared a laugh. "Yeah, well I seriously doubt Austin is willing to give up that position of his. You're going to have to compete for it."

I smirked. "Heh, well seeing as he's later than we are, I'd say I'm a more awesome leader than he is. Anyway, how's planning going? All set for exploring, cause we gotta hurry. The other teams have a head start!"

Flare sighed. "Yes Eve, we're all set. So I'm guessing you want to team up?"

"Yeah! We gotta have as many of us as possible so we can solve this mystery ourselves!"

Flare gave a nod and turned to our other teammates. "Drew, you have everything?"

He took a second to check his bag before nodding his head in confirmation. "Yeah. Everything we'll need has been packed. We should be ready to go."

I walked up to Luke a smirked. "So Luke. How's the girlfriend working out?" I teased him.

He blushed. "Umm. We're doing great Eve... Why?"

I smiled. "Just wondering how my bro's doing with love. Not much."

"Well he's doing just fine. Though sometimes he tends to try a little too hard. I find it rather cute actually." She laughed, causing Luke to blush even more.

"Alright guys, that's enough teasing. Eve, are you ready? I think you should lead." Flare chimed in.

"Oh yeah! That's right! But why me?" I asked her. No one had actually asked me to lead the whole team before. I just kinda did it the last time.

"Well I just figured you'd want to since Austin's not here. You up for it?" She asked.

"Yes! Alright guys, let's hurry up and find that lake! If I'm leading, there's no way anyone else is finding it!" I told the group as we made our way for the dungeon.

* * *

**Inside Dungeon - Foggy Forest:**

"Ugh... What's with all of this fog?" I complained once we entered the forest dungeon. The whole area was covered in a super thick layer of fog, and we could only see a couple of inches in front of us, so nearly every time we came across a wall we had to feel along it until we came to the next pathway or else we'd smash our faces in.

"Well Chatot did say it was called Foggy Forest. Don't see a reason why it wouldn't be called that." Luke replied. I then felt a tap on my shoulder. "Hey Eve, can I talk to you for a second?"

It was Luke, and he seemed like he was trying to keep his voice down. "Uhh, yeah sure. Why?"

He looked around for a second before looking down. "It's about Esuna. I think I love her."

I gave him an odd look. "Umm... Yeah... Isn't that kind of obvious?"

He shrugged. "Heh, yeah I guess so. It's just that... I want Esuna to feel special and everything. You know, like how Austin makes Ally feel and stuff."

I smiled. "Well that's good."

He sighed. "But it's easier said than done. I...I'm not so good at this kind of stuff. Before Esuna, I had barely even spoken to any girls besides family and Flare. I don't know what they're like. I mean, whenever I make a mistake, Esuna just laughs. I don't understand. Is my embarrassment fun or something?"

I laughed. "Luke, I don't think that's what it's about. She's laughing because she thinks you're funny, not because you're embarrassed. And you don't need to understand all girls in order to make Esuna feel special. You just have to know her."

"I'm funny? What about my mistakes is funny?"

"Ok, so she has a strange sense of humor. The point is, if she's laughing, you did something right. Don't get discouraged if she does. And I've seen you make romantic stuff up with your magic before. Why don't you do that for Esuna?"

Luke shrugged. "I don't know. It's just that when I'm around her, I just can't help but get anxious about something going wrong. I want our first date to be perfect."

I laughed. "Luke, I really think you're just rushing it a bit. It'll work out if you just be patient. It doesn't even have to be perfect. Even a walk counts as a date ya know." I smiled encouragingly as I put my paw on his shoulder. "Don't worry bro, she's not gonna leave you if you mess up a date. She really likes you. I can tell."

He smiled. "Thanks Eve. By the way, how's it going with Alex?"

I looked at him a bit shocked. "How do you know about that?!"

"Come on. It's obvious. Everyone knows it. I'm surprised you haven't gotten together yet." He replied.

I looked down. "Oh... Well... Maybe soon..."

By the time our conversation ended, we had reached the third floor. That's when the population of resident pokemon started to increase, and they didn't seem to be affected by the fog in the slightest. Perhaps it was the fact that they had been living in this fog every day. One thing's for sure, they were giving us trouble.

At one point I got the great idea of dashing around in a circle with quick attack to disperse the fog. The idea worked, and the fog was lifted to reveal that we had been in the center of an ambush the entire time. "Wow, ok Flare. You and Drew take that section over there. Luke and Esuna, you take that one over there. Alex and I will take this section I guess." They all nodded in agreement.

In front of us were a collection of about fifteen pokemon ranging from cherubi to zigzagoon. I gave a nod towards Alex before rushing forward towards the first pokemon I saw, a stantler, and jumping slightly. Once I was in range, I pulled my arm back for a paw strike and slammed it into the stantler's head, knocking him straight back through the collection of pokemon and into the wall. On the way there, he crashed into several other pokemon, taking them along with him.

"Yes!" I exclaimed with the pump of my paw as Alex ran past me towards one of the pokemon that hadn't gotten hit. His target, a cherubi, tried to attack him with an energy ball, but he dodged to the right just in time to counter with an iron tail that sent it packing, making contact with the rest of the pokemon and ending the fight. Once he made his way back, we gave each other a high three and turned to help the others. However, they had also taken care of their sections of attackers by the time we did so.

"Alright, good. Looks like we're getting better at this." I smiled in excitement. "Let's hurry up and finish this dungeon!" I exclaimed and was about to run ahead when a red-orange gleam caught my eye. I immediately stopped and turned to see an odd red stone that seemed to be glowing. "Ooh! I found something!" I ran towards it and picked it up to find that it was emitting a warm pulse of heat. "And it's warm."

"Hmm?" Alex sounded. "Is it some kind of stone?"

I nodded. "It looks so awesome! This just has to be connected to something!" I exclaimed excitedly as I placed it inside Alex's bag. "Second most awesome rock ever!"

"Oh yeah. I almost forgot about the relic fragment." Alex stated, bringing up old memories. "Where do you keep that anyway?"

"You may never know." I gave him a flirtatious wink before turning around and walking towards the next path. "Come on guys, let's hurry up and go."

After that, not much else happened. We continued on through the dungeon as usual, running into the occasional enemy here and there. Dealing with the resident pokemon was made easy due to my new quick attack strategy, and we no longer had to take it slow in order to avoid crashing.

Eventually we began to hear rushing sounds just like that of the waterfall we had been to a while back, and a second after that, we came upon a decently sized clearing with a large, beaten up statue at the far end of it. There was a heavy amount of fog in the area, but no matter how many times I tried, my strategy just couldn't lift it.

"Aww man." I let out as I panted. "There's just no end to this fog..."

Flare sighed. "Well the dungeon took us here. There should be something here we have to look for. Drew, you see anything with that odd vision of yours?"

He shook his head. "No, not with all of this fog. I can't see a thing."

Alex looked to the statue in thought. "Let's get a closer look at that statue." But I was already on it.

The statue seemed to be a complete monument of Groudon. Austin and Ally had faced him a while back, so I knew quite well what he looked like from Ally's description of him. What I couldn't figure out was how this connected to the mystery. I walked around the monument so I could see the rest of it, before spotting a carved inscription on its side. "Ugh... Footprint Ruins..."

Alex was right behind me, studying the inscription as well. Apparently, he was a lot faster at this stuff. "Wait. Aren't you supposed to be proficient in that language? That should be good right?" He asked.

I turned to him with a frown. "Well yeah, it is. But it's so boring. Even if it is ancient, it's so annoying to translate and I haven't even practiced it in a long time." I complained as I turned around to read. "Hmm... Drought Stone... Chest of the statue?" I contemplated over the words for a second. I couldn't even read most of it because it was so ancient and most of it had been worn away. "Wait a minute. I think it says to put whatever this Drought Stone thingy is into this statue's chest! Alex, let me see my rock."

Alex didn't hesitate. He took out the strange rock and handed it to me as I walked around the front of the statue where I saw a huge hole in its chest. "Heh, awesome! I knew this rock did something. Hey Alex, can ya help me up there?"

I thought I saw Alex blush as he walked over to me and picked me up, holding me so I could get close enough to the statue to put the rock in place. Once I finally did however, the eyes of the statue flashed red, catching us both off guard and causing us to crash to the ground. Luckily, I landed on top of Alex.

"Umm guys, maybe we shouldn't be here right now." They all agreed as we took off away from the statue. By the time we had gotten about halfway across the clearing, the entire area suddenly flashed white with light and temporarily blinded us.

The light cleared after about a second, and when it did the fog had been lifted. I looked up in awe. "Wow! Hahah! That's so awesome! Guys, you gotta look up! It looks like a giant cup!"

They all looked at me funny. "A giant cup?" Alex asked.

I sighed. "Just look up. The sight's amazing! I think the top of the cup thing is the lake."

They all looked up with the same expression of wonder I had. "Wow... That's pretty high up. I'm guessing we're gonna have to climb that structure somehow. My bet's on that path up ahead. There must be a dungeon of some sort leading to the lake." Alex theorized.

I looked over at the statue for a second, which had since stopped glowing, the stone nowhere to be seen. "Man, I wanted to keep that stone..." I sighed. "So, who's gonna go back and inform the others about this? I mean, obviously no one else has found this and it wouldn't exactly be fair to just leave them behind."

Flare nodded. "Drew, Luke. I think you two should go. Esuna and I will go with Alex and Eve to explore the area ahead."

While she was explaining, I noticed Luke had a slightly reluctant look on his face. I frowned. "Actually Flare, maybe you could go with Drew and Luke could come with us and Esuna. Sound ok?"

Flare gave me a confused look but nodded all the same. "I guess that'll be fine. You guys be careful." She replied before she and Drew left the way we had come.

Luke walked up to me and smiled. "Thanks."

I gave him a wink. "No problem bro." I smiled as I gave him a half hug. I then turned to face Alex and Esuna. "Alright, let's go."

"Whoahoho there! Not so fast!" Said someone from off to the side. I immediately recognized the voice and frowned as Team Skull entered the clearing, blocking our path.

"What do you want Team Skull? We're in a hurry." I asked them in a bored tone.

Skuntank laughed. "Oh! So the little wimp's in a hurry I see. Well then, why don't we help you with that? And of course by help, I mean we'll be taking it from here. You four should just scurry on back before you get hurt."

Instead of letting them get to me, I decided to have a little fun with them. I already knew their strategy, so why not? "Get hurt? I don't see a way for us to get hurt. I'm sure we'll be fine."

Skuntank's wide grin lessened a bit. "Really? A wimp like you wouldn't last ten seconds in the dungeon that's ahead. I'm surprised you even made it this far."

I smiled. "There's a dungeon ahead? So you must've seen it? What's it like huh? Is it awesome?! Are there a lot of secrets and stuff?!" I replied, intentionally ignoring his response whilst trying to hold back a laugh from my own.

His expression was priceless. "Why you! That's it, you asked for it! No holding back Koffing! Let's hit them with the combo!"

I smirked as they got into formation. "Get ready to jump out of the way guys."

The others nodded just as Skuntank and Koffing launched their attack. Instead of jumping out of the way, I leapt straight over the cloud of gas and pulled back my arm. I waited until I was directly in front of them before I dived straight down and slammed my paw into the ground as hard as I could. The ground in turn produced a shockwave as a huge crater formed, huge cracks and fissures expanding out from it in every direction as they shifted, turning the once flat surface of the clearing into a jagged mess. Once the rumbling stopped, I looked up at Team Skull with a wide smirk on my face. They looked terrified as they took in what I had done.

"Not much of a wimp now am I?" I smiled. Skuntank tried his hardest to suppress his fear, turning it into a mere smirk.

"Heh, so you managed to avoid our combo huh? Well, you won't get so lucky next time. Let's go you two! Move out!" He ordered as they ran for the hills.

I laughed after they were gone. "That was so awesome! Ya can't trick Evening Grace twice! Hahah!"

The others walked up to me after my short celebration. "Nice job Eve. You really gave them a run for their money." Esuna laughed. "How did you do that anyway?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. Guess I don't know my own strength. Really comes in handy though." I replied. "Anyway, now we can actually continue with the expedition. Hopefully there aren't any more distractions."

Alex nodded. "We better hurry then. Anything could happen on an expedition like this."

"Right! Let's get to that Lake guys! Come on!" I shouted as I ran ahead. "Yeah!"

* * *

**Outside Dungeon - Steam Cave:**

Just down the path from the clearing was a giant rocky structure that led up to the lake. The same one we had seen from the clearing, so Alex was right about having to climb it. The cool thing about it was that it seemed to be like a hot spring. There were hot, steamy water pools all around it and steam was rising in great amounts near the entrance to what looked to be a cave. "Heh, awesome! It's probably really hot in there."

"That's good. It'll be a relief to get out of the cold." Alex commented. I nodded. The weather hadn't been too nice lately. It was freezing outside. This cave would be nice.

"It's cold? Huh, never noticed." Esuna chimed in.

I sighed and turned around. "That's because you're a vulpix Esuna."

"Oh yeah..." She laughed. "Never mind." She looked around us at the cave. "So, are we gonna head out or not?"

I shivered as a freezing wind blew by us. "Ok, yeah. Let's go before the wind turns us into vanillite." I joked before dashing into the cave.

Inside Dungeon - Steam Cave:

"Man, I was right! It really is hot in here!" I exclaimed, happy to be out of the cold. The same couldn't be said for Esuna however, who immediately started panting upon entering the dungeon.

"Yeah... You're telling me..." She said through pants.

Luke looked at her nervously. "Umm... Here Esuna, take this..." He said as he held out what looked to be a blue scarf.

Esuna looked at it with confusion in her expression. "That's a scarf Luke. How's that gonna help?"

Luke continued to hold the scarf out for her however. "Just...feel it..." He told her nervously.

Esuna decided not to question it as she reached out to feel the scarf, still panting. Once she did so however, a surprised look hit her face. "It's cold... Luke, is this a Glacier Cape?"

Luke nodded. "Yeah... I had it made into a scarf after I got it from a trade... I thought it would help you if you ever got too hot..."

At that Esuna smiled and hugged him. "Thank you Luke!" She pulled back and kissed him on the cheek. "It's wonderful."

I had to hold back a laugh as I saw how red Luke was. Even more so when Esuna asked him to help her put the scarf on.

"Heheh, alright. Let's get going before the others catch up to us." I spoke up before walking ahead.

Compared to the last dungeon, this one seemed to be even more lively, with residents attacking at practically every corner. They seemed to be stronger here as well, which turned out to be a bit of a problem when it came to time.

"Ugh, how many of these guys are there?" I sighed as I batted away a numel. We were only a few floors up and there was most likely a midpoint in this dungeon.

"Who knows? It's a mystery dungeon. No one even knows where the resident pokemon come from when they attack." Esuna replied after using flamethrower to knock out a snubbull.

"Come to think of it, I've never thought about that. Does anyone even study these places?" Alex asked.

"Not that I know of. From what I've gathered, what we know about dungeons has been learned through the experience of teams." Esuna replied.

"Well that's not such a bad thing to me. If we knew more about dungeons, it would ruin the mystery." I commented as we advanced.

Time Skip - 1 Hour:

After about an hour, we reached the midpoint of the dungeon and decided to take a break.

I sighed in relief as I sat back against a wall. "Alex, how many floors do you think are left?"

Alex checked his wrist-badge, which promptly lit up with a holographic display. "Hmm... Well it can't tell exactly how many, but there aren't too many left."

So far, this had been the most difficult dungeon I had ever been in. "Ahh... Well if that's true, we don't need to rest for long. So what do you think this lake looks like?"

Esuna shook her head. "Who knows? Nobody's ever gotten this close to seeing it in person but the guardian, Uxie. Even if you did manage to reach it, you wouldn't remember since she has the ability to wipe your memory of the place."

My ears perked up at that. "Wait! This Uxie person can wipe memories?! Then maybe she knows something about Alex."

Alex shook his head. "I doubt it. Esuna just said that Uxie only wipes memories of the lake, although it is strange that I've felt like I've been here before ever since I set foot here."

I looked at him in surprise. "You think you've been here before?! Why didn't you tell me?!"

He shrugged. "I thought it was just a feeling of deja vu. It's lasted far too long to be just that now. I honestly don't know though. I still haven't regained any memories."

I sighed. "Well it's something at least. If we're gonna figure out who you were, we're gonna need everything we can get." I said as I twirled my paw around in the dirt and rocks. "Man, it's actually great to get away from all of the magic and stuff for once." I smiled and stood up. "So, you guys ready for the second stretch?"

They all nodded and we continued into the second section of the dungeon. This half wasn't nearly as hard as the last, as surprising as that is. That of course meaning that there weren't as many residents as before. We were able to quickly make our way through the floors, and had made it to the top within ten minutes.

* * *

**Fogbound Lake Clearing:**

Upon exiting, we arrived in a clearing that seemed to continue further on like a path. "Ooh! Who wants to bet the lake's down that path?!" I asked, a bit of excitement gripping at my voice.

"I would think so. It's the only path up here. Or at least that's what we can see anyway." Alex replied.

I looked on in excitement before attempting to run ahead, but an extremely loud roar stopped me dead in my tracks. "What the?! What was that?!" I asked as the ground began to shake.

What I saw next was the most awesome thing I had ever seen. Or at least it would've been if Ally hadn't already told me about it. Regardless, it still excited me. Right in front of me was Groudon of all pokemon.

"What's Groudon doing here?!" I heard Esuna exclaim over my shoulder.

"I don't know but it's awesome!" I replied, getting into a fighting position. "It's clear that he wants a fight though." I smirked as I stated up at him, seemingly prompting another roar out of the giant pokemon. Then without a second to object, Groudon attempted to hit me with a slash attack.

Before he could do so however, I jumped high above it and pulled my arm back as far as I could. Once I was directly in front of his head, I swung it back around and connected hard with his face. The result was a huge shockwave that forced Groudon back a few feet before he...burst into pieces of rock?

I stared on with disbelief as I landed, looking at the pile of rocks that was formerly Groudon. "What?! What happened?!" I asked out loud before staring down at my paw. "Oh no..." I said as I plopped down onto the ground. "It can't be..."

"What is it Eve?" Alex asked me, sounding a bit worried.

"I'm...too awesome!" I exclaimed, making the whole group behind me face-palm in disbelief. "I killed Groudon because I was too awesome! Man, I knew I shouldn't have taken those extra punching lessons..."

I felt Alex's hand on my back. "Eve, it's pretty obvious that the Groudon you hit wasn't real." He laughed. "Though you would make a pretty good actress."

I looked up. "It wasn't real?! How?! What is there some sort of projector around here or something?" I asked as I walked over to a wall and poked it, only to end up poking something invisible instead.

"Hey now! I am not a projector!" Shouted a voice from in front of me as a figure came into view. It had a pale body with two tails and a yellow helmet-like head. It's eyes were closed however, so I couldn't get a good look at them.

"Then what and who are you then?" I asked the newcomer, who frowned as I asked the question.

The newcomer hovered to the center of the clearing before speaking. "I am Uxie, the guardian of Fogbound Lake, NOT a projector. However, I did make this Groudon illusion."

"So you are a projector!" I joked, quite to Uxie's annoyance.

Uxie crossed his arms. "Now tell me. What is your reason for coming here? I should let you know, I cannot allow anyone access to the Lake."

"What?! No fair! We just wanted to see the lake. Besides, our entire guild is following us, so if we fail at this it'll be really disappointing." I complained.

Alex came to stand by my side. "We're not here to steal anything if that's what you're worried about. We're on an expedition to find the lake. That's it."

Uxie flew up close to me and seemed to examine me with his eyes closed. "Hmm. Well aren't you quite the pure one?" He commented as he returned to his original position. "Alright then. If you do not seek the destruction of this place, I see no reason why you can't at least see the lake. Follow me." He instructed as he floated off down the pathway.

We exchanged glances before following him.

* * *

**Midnight, Fogbound Lake:**

After a short walk, Uxie led us onto a strip of land surrounded by the waters of the most beautiful lake I had ever seen. It was super late, so the darkness of the night made the sight even better. In the sky were hundreds of different colored lights, later identified by Uxie as volbeat and illimuse. They all flew around what looked to be a huge, colorfully illuminated geyser at the center of the lake. At the center of which was a blue, strange looking object that I couldn't quite make out through the rushing water. The water itself was a pure blue, which reflected everything above it like a mirror against the night sky.

I ran up to the edge of the rocky platform with pure excitement in my eyes as I gazed at the scene in awe. "Wow! This lake's so beautiful! No wonder you want to protect it." I said excitedly as I focused on on the geyser, attempting to see what was inside of it. "Hey Uxie? What's that in the center of the geyser?"

Uxie looked as if he had been expecting that sort of question all along. "Ahh. Well, that right there is a very vital relic called the time gear."

I looked at him questioningly. "What's a time gear?" By that time, the others had joined me.

Uxie nodded at my confusion. "I understand your confusion. They aren't very well known. But the time gears are very important relics that help regulate the flow of time. Without them, the flow of time would surely cease to exist."

"What?! So you mean that without the time gears, there would be no time?" I asked, a bit surprised.

Uxie nodded. That is the real reason why I guard this lake. To protect the time gear. If someone were to remove it from the lake, time here would stop and eventually spread." He replied. "It's quite beautiful isn't it?"

I looked forward, trying to get a glimpse of the time gear. Eventually my eyes focused in on an oddly shaped blue object with strange arrow patterns carved into it. "Yeah, it kinda is." I smiled.

Uxie nodded. "Well then, if you've no more questions I'll allow you to enjoy the scenery for as long as you'd like."

"That's wonderful!" Exclaimed someone from behind us. We all turned around to see Wigglytuff with a wide smile on his face. "We can't take a time gear, so looking out at this scenery makes this expedition a success!"

Uxie turned to me for answers as Wigglytuff walked up to the edge of the lake. "This is our guildmaster, Wigglytuff. He's a bit...straightforward..." I explained.

Wigglytuff turned towards Uxie. "Hello there! Nice to meet ya! Thank you for allowing us to see this wonderful scene!"

Uxie nodded. "I'm assuming there are more of you?"

As if on cue, everyone else arrived on spot. The others met up with us upon arriving. Flare seemed to be a bit wary of Uxie however, which I found strange.

"And that's everyone." Alex explained after everyone had settled in.

Uxie nodded once more. "Alright then." He turned towards the entire group. "I have decided to entrust your guild with the secret of this lake, should you promise to in turn never tell anyone about what you have seen here."

Every single one of us agreed with Uxie's terms, and he in turn left us to enjoy the scenery.

I myself had settled down at the edge of the lake, right where I had a clear view of the geyser. It in itself was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. I sighed as I laid down and looked up at the night sky in peace.

"Mind if I join you?" Said someone to my right. I turned my head slightly to notice Alex sit down next to me.

I shook my head. "Go ahead." I replied with an inward smile. Alex had actually chosen to sit by me at a place like this! It was almost as if...

"So, was the expedition as thrilling as you expected it to be?" Alex asked, he himself gazing out at the scenery.

I nodded. "Yeah. I can't believe I actually found this place! Though I really could've gone without thinking I killed Groudon." I laughed. "Ya know... Laying down at the bank of this lake kinda reminds me of the nights I used to spend with my parents back at the pond in Pokemon Square. Things were so simple back then. It's almost like everything we've been through so far has been a dream..."

Alex nodded. "I get how you feel. I'd be lying if I said that all of this didn't feel like a dream." He laughed. "Being a pokemon seems pretty far fetched even now. But... I have to admit I like it so far..." He let out a sigh of content. "So, what are you gonna do next? You said you wanted to be the best."

I thought about it for a second. "Ya know honestly, I'm not sure. I think I'll just go with the flow for now on." I replied as I looked down at the gently flowing water. I looked up towards Alex. "Ya know, I never could've imagined doing any of this without you. You're the first person to ever inspire me to push past my fears and achieve whatever I want. Thank you Alex..."

Alex turned to me. "Eve, it wasn't me who did that. You did that all on your own." He smiled. "All you needed was a little push in the beginning. You're extremely confident and brave. Heck, you jumped out of a drifblim taxi because you wanted to get to a town early, and you always run ahead on missions because you're so excited about what you'll find." He laughed. "You're an explorer at heart, and you don't need anyone's help to be brave."

I looked up at him with a deep blush, as shocked as I had ever been. "You... You really think that?"

He nodded. "Of course I do. You're the most confident person I've ever met, and I just know that you'll achieve your goal of becoming the best. I have complete faith in you." He smiled.

At that point I was so happy that I couldn't control myself and ended up tackling Alex in a tight hug. "Thank you Alex! No one's ever said anything like that to me before! You're the most amazing friend ever!" I praised him as I repetitively nuzzled his face. Once I realized what I was doing however I pulled away slightly, a huge blush on my face. "S-s-sorry!"

To my surprise, Alex was actually laughing. "Heheh, it's ok." He smiled as he looked up at me. I looked down at him and straight into his eyes. Then everything froze. It was like someone had already removed the time gear and Alex and I were the only ones there. Alone where no one could bother us.

"I...I..." Was all I could say as I just stared down at him, at those beautiful blue eyes of his. A huge blush had adorned my cheeks as I shook my head to snap out of my trance. "I-It is?" I asked him as I returned to reality.

He nodded. "Yeah. You were just happy. I get it." He replied.

Then it just happened. I leaned forward, pressed my lips against his, closed my eyes and kissed him. Immediately it was like a firework had gone off in my head as a million thoughts raced through it at once. Then that too went as it felt like the world itself had stopped for that one moment as I enjoyed the kiss.

Eventually we had to break the kiss for air, seemingly bringing everything back to the way it was. The difference was, every eye in the entire area was now directly on us.

My face felt like it was on fire. "I uhh... So..."

He laughed nervously. "Yeah..."

There was a long period of silence between us as we just looked between each other before each of us decided it was time to break it.

"I love you!" We both shouted at the same time, each surprising the other.

My hear felt like it had stopped altogether. "You... You what?"

Alex smiled as he tried to sit up. I quickly got off of him so he could. "Evening Meadow Grace. Ever since I met you, I've had a huge crush on you. And now that we're here in this special place, I want to tell you this. I love you."

Immediately tears of joy started streaming down my face. "Alex I...I love you too..." I smiled as I hugged him around the neck.

All around us we could hear the sound of clapping, but I didn't care. "Alex?"

"Yes Eve?" He replied.

"Promise me you'll never forget this moment." I asked him.

He sighed in content. "I promise." He replied as he returned the hug.

"Never forget..."


	13. Old Friend, New Explorer!

 

* * *

"The greatest of surprises often await those who least expect them."

* * *

**8:00am, Grace Family House, Eve's POV:**

I don't know how long I had been asleep but not long after I noticed that familiar feeling of warmth, the same warmth that I had felt on my first night at the guild, I was whisked away from the realm of dreams. I opened my eyes to look for the source, but quickly shut them to shield them from the sunlight that immediately assaulted my eyes. 'Ugh, who forgot to close the curtain?' I thought as I rubbed my eyes and attempted to open them again. Once I did, my face went red. Alex and I had fallen asleep in each others arms. I looked up at him and smiled, remembering the moment we had shared last night. It was almost like a dream.

A strange realization struck my mind as I looked around my room. 'How did we get back home?' I wondered, being unable to remember making the trip back to Treasure Town.

I was immediately shaken out of my thoughts by the sound of Alex stirring. I turned back to him just in time for him to open his eyes. "Good morning princess." He smiled as he gazed at me lovingly.

I tilted my head. "Princess?" I asked, taking a moment to think about what he had called me. "Oh yeah!" I exclaimed, blushing from embarrassment. "Forgot..."

Alex laughed. "I take it you slept well? You didn't even notice me carry you back."

"Wait so you carried me back?! So that explains why I can't remember coming back here." I laughed nervously. "So... Last night..."

Alex smiled and wrapped his arms around my waist. "Yeah... It was great right?" He asked as he pulled me close.

I nodded as I nuzzled his cheek. "It was the best moment of my life." I smiled as I hugged him. "How long have you known?"

Sighing as if defeated, he reached under our pillow and pulled out a folded piece of paper, which he then unfolded between us. "I believe you wrote me this anonymous love letter?" He laughed. "It was good, but you forget I know how you speak."

I blushed. "It was that easy huh? You knew all along. But why didn't you tell me?"

He sighed. "Because I wanted it to be special for you. And it was, wasn't it?" He smirked, prompting another grin from me.

"It was wonderful." I replied, leaning in and planting a kiss on his cheek.

"You love birds done in there?! We've got a guild to get to!" Austin shouted from behind the door.

I frowned and nodded at Alex before getting up and jumping off the bed. I was tired of Austin bothering us every morning, so I planned a little prank for him to get back at him. Once I got to the door, I glanced up at a rope that I had attached to a bucket on the outside through a vent in the ceiling. Then with a look of mischief, I pulled down on it as hard as I could. After a moment of silence, a splattering sound and an angry gasp, Austin opened the door and glared at me, his fur drenched in pink paint. Luckily Mom and Dad had figured out a way to switch him and Ally back early.

"Eve! What's with the paint downpour! This is gonna be impossible to get out!" He complained as Alex laughed in the background.

"Heheh, what? You mean you haven't studied a paint removal spell?" I laughed as Austin sighed.

"Guess that'll be the next spell I'll learn." He replied. "Just get ready. I'm going to ask your mom if she has any spell books that can fix this mess." He said as he left us.

Alex walked up to me with an amused look on his face. "Nice one. Pink's a good color for him." He laughed. "But we really should get ready. Now it's back to ordinary guild work."

"Yeah. As ordinary as it gets when something weird could happen at any moment." I commented before giving Alex a quick hug. "Let's get going." I said as he grabbed the treasure bag and we headed out." When we entered the living room, everyone else had already gathered there. Seems like everyone else had gotten used to getting up this early.

I made my way over to Luke, who had been talking to Ally. "So Luke, how's the whole date situation working out? Thought of anything yet?" I asked him.

He sighed and shook his head. "Not yet. I can't think of anything. I don't know why. I just don't know much about this stuff."

I thought on it for a second before it hit me. "I still have those passes to Sky Peak. Maybe you guys can go there sometime? They're group passes, so we can all go anyway."

Luke's eyes lit up. "Oh yeah! I forgot you won those at the tournament! That place is perfect!" He smiled as he hugged me. "Thanks Eve!"

"No problem Luke." I smiled. "So, where's Mr. Pinkachu?" I laughed, making fun of our recently pranked leader.

"I think he found a book of cleaning spells and went off to read it. He'll probably be a while." Luke replied.

A grin met my face once I realized he wasn't back yet. I quickly ran to the center of the room and took a deep breath. "Alright guys, since our leader is currently distracted, I've decided to take over the role as leader and lead us to the guild. After all, we wouldn't want to be late."

Ally looked amused as she nodded along. "I agree with Eve. Chatot lets us skip out on the morning assembly since we live here, but I don't think he'd appreciate it if we were too late. Let's leave now and let Austin catch up once he's ready."

Everyone else nodded their agreements and faced me for instruction. My eyes lit up with excitement as I turned around. "Alright then. If you all agree, I don't see a reason to stay here any longer. Let's get going."

* * *

**Wigglytuff's Guild, 1B Floor:**

After climbing down the ladder to the first floor of the guild, the first thing I noticed was the absence of the crew. "Umm...where is everybody?" I asked aloud as I gazed around the room. "Do we have the day off or something?"

Alex put his hand on my shoulder. "Eve, I'm sure they're just on the lower level. Something important must be going on." He answered. I blushed from embarrassment.

"Oh yeah. Pfft! I knew that." I lied miserably, rubbing the back of my head nervously. "Let's just go..." I sighed as we headed down the second ladder.

On the next floor we were met with the entire guild in assembly formation, gathered around what looked to be a dusknoir. "Hmm... Who's that?" I asked as soon as we arrived.

Our sudden appearance in the room turned the heads of everyone in it. Chatot soon approached us. "Good morning Team Eviolite. I'm surprised you're actually here this early, but it's lucky that you are. We have an important guest today."

I groaned. "Don't tell me it's someone like Team Skull again. Those guys were so annoying." I complained.

Chatot frowned. "Hush now! This visitor so happens to be a famous explorer! I won't have you disrespecting him!"

My eyes lit up at that. "Famous explorer?! Where?! Is he behind the dusknoir guy?!" I asked him, moving left and right trying to catch a glimpse of this famous explorer.

Chatot looked shocked. "He is the 'dusknoir guy'. Do you mean to tell me that you've never heard of the great Dusknoir?!"

I tilted my head. "The who? I've heard of all of the famous explorers, but I've never heard of someone like that. You sure he's famous?"

Chatot looked as if he were about to faint. "Are you kidding?! Of course he is! He showed up practically over night and became a legend! He's extremely knowledgeable, even more so than me. He doesn't even have a partner."

I rolled my eyes. "Doesn't seem very special to me. And who travels without a partner?"

"Bah. You'll see for yourself." Chatot commented before heading back towards Wigglytuff.

"Yeah yeah..." I muttered as Wigglytuff walked up to Dusknoir.

"So what brings you here friend?!" He asked with his signature wide smile.

Everyone leaned in to listen to what this 'Great Dusknoir' had to say. I however just sat down with our map and examined it. 'I wonder where we could make a discovery next...'

"Well I heard that your guild recently arrived back from an annual expedition. Fogbound Lake was it? I was particularly interested in this location, and wanted to hear of your findings. I've heard great tales of your guild, so I assume it was a success?" I heard Dusknoir explain.

"Nope! It was a complete failure. We found out nothing about that place. Just a waste of time. Not much to hear about." Wigglytuff replied, as per the promise. I mentally laughed at his explanation.

From the sound of Dusknoir's response, he sounded sincerely disappointed. "Well that's a shame. It's too bad you couldn't discover anything. I've been interested in that area for a while now, but I suppose it can't be helped. If you learn something anytime soon, please do tell me." He turned to the rest of the guild. "I will be staying in Treasure Town for a while. If you have questions, please feel free to ask. I certainly don't mind."

With that Chatot approached the guild. "Ahem! Now, I realize that our visitor is famous, however I would like you to refrain from asking him for silly things such as autographs."

"I know you have one Chatot." I said out loud, producing a small fit of laughter from the entire guild. Even Dusknoir seemed amused.

Chatot glared at me. "Hush now Eve! We don't need your opinion!" He scolded me, sounding slightly flustered. "That will be all." With that, he scurried off to Wigglytuff's chamber and the rest of the guild left to do their jobs. Dusknoir however approached me.

"So, you're Eve of Team Eviolite. I've heard about you. You stopped a group of bandits who attacked the central square of Castello Town." He explained as he approached.

I looked up at him from my map. "Do you really go by 'The Great Dusknoir', or is that just a fan name?" I asked jokingly.

He laughed heartily. "Yes I do suppose the reputation I acquired did produce a few odd nicknames." He replied. "You know, I've always been quite fond of young explorers like yourself. You work with a certain determination and passion that us older folk don't come by too often. Might I ask, what is your goal?"

I smirked, raising my paw in front of me like someone would a fist. "To become the greatest explorer who ever lived! What I'm aiming for isn't fame. I'm aiming for what's truly the best there is!" I declared.

Dusknoir seemed enlightened. "Ahh. May good fortune await you on your travels then. As for me, I have my own business to attend to. May we meet again Eve." He said as he waved a farewell and exited the guild.

Once he was gone I turned to Alex, only to find a worried expression on his face as he stared in the direction Dusknoir had just left. I lightly tapped his arm to get his attention. "Hey Alex, you ok?"

He snapped out of it as soon as my paw hit his arm. "Hmm? Oh, uhh yeah. I'm fine. What is it?" He asked.

I smiled as I got up onto my hind legs and planted a kiss on his cheek. "That." I replied slyly, resulting in a blush.

Chatot walked back out of Wigglytuff's chamber. "Team Eviolite, it appears I have yet another mission for you. And this one's rather...special." He announced as he approached.

I whipped around at the word 'special'. "Special?! What kind of mission is it?!" I asked him excitedly, not quite catching the hint of sarcasm in his voice.

He sighed. "It seems that a rather 'distressed' individual has been causing trouble around the area of Cyprus Town. We didn't get much of a description, but we do know that the individual is an eevee."

"So we're supposed to find this person and calm them down?" Flare asked, receiving a nod from Chatot.

"Correct. This person is in distress. Therefore this qualifies as a request mission, not an outlaw mission. I assume you'll accept it?" He asked.

I nodded and turned back towards the team just as Austin slid down the ladder looking angry. "Guys! Why'd you leave without me?!"

At that, every single eye in the room was on me. "What? If I don't do stuff, I'll never be the leader."

Austin looked at me as if I were joking. "Leader? You? No way."

I walked up to him and poked him in the chest with my paw. "Yes way!"

He looked surprised. "You really want to be the leader?" When I didn't say anything, he smiled. "Alright then, I'll let you lead this mission. If it turns out to be a success, you can be this team's leader."

I just stared at him, pure excitement in my eyes. "What?! Really?!" I smiled as I jumped at him and hugged him tightly. "Thank you!"

He tensed up at the hug. "No problem. Don't forget about what you have to do though."

"I won't! Alright umm... We'll only need one group for this. Flare, you're group can take on some extra missions or relax." I frowned when I didn't see Connor. Where'd he go? I decided to shrug it off and faced Alex. "Alex, do we have enough supplies?"

Alex checked the bag. "Well since you took care of the groudon illusion so efficiently, we're still good for a mission like this."

"Awesome! Let's head out then!" I smiled as I turned around and started pushing Austin toward the ladder. "Hurry up Austin! No time for slacking off!"

"What?! What are you talking about?! Stop pushing me!"

* * *

**Route to Cyprus Town, Austin's POV:**

So after Eve practically threw me up two ladders, we decided on a route to take to Cyprus Town and headed out...or at least that's what should've happened. Eve decided to make up her own route and it was questionable at best. So far we had climbed a hill, jumped down a cliff side and even passed through a forest, none of which were on the map.

"Eve, I'm pretty sure we're lost. Are you even following the map?" I asked her, a bit worried about how her 'leadership' was going to work out. Even if this mission was a failure, I wasn't going to take it away from her. I'm not cruel, but her navigation skills are worrisome. This could be bad.

She waved a paw back at me. "Just trust me. I've got this." She said casually as we approached a waterfall. Knowing what this could entail, I simply sighed and followed along. Eve walked close to the edge of the waterfall and stared down. "Heh, just what I thought. A shortcut!"

"What? Let me see." I made my way over to where she stood and looked down, but all I saw was a big pool of water below. "Umm Eve, how is this a shortcut?"

"Why don't you look at the map you kept asking me about?" She replied.

I just rolled my eyes and pulled out the map. After scanning over it for a moment, I found the location of Cyprus town. To my surprise, next to the town was a waterfall just like the one we were standing on. Dungeons covered the other possible paths, but the path after the waterfall was completely clear. She was right about the shortcut part. "Eve, how did you know where to find this without the map? It's in the middle of nowhere."

She shrugged. "I don't know. I've never used a map before. I just kinda know where to go." She explained. "So, you jumping first?"

I just stood there staring at her for a moment before looking back down at the pool of water. "Guess so." I replied before backing up. "See ya down there." I smiled at her as I ran towards the edge and jumped. I felt the air rush past me, attempting to slow me down as I plummeted towards the water below. Then with a large splash I crashed through the water, shutting my eyes to avoid the sting of water getting into them. I immediately started pushing myself up towards the surface, a slow process since I wasn't quite used to swimming as a pokemon. Eventually I reached the surface and reopened my eyes to see the others had already joined me.

Eve appeared to be laughing as she paddled to the shore. "Heheh, how was that?" She asked me as I did the same. "Not so bad to have a little fun every once in a while is it?." She smiled as she shook out her fur. "Anyway, so the town should be straight that way." She pointed ahead.

I nodded as I pulled myself up onto the shore. 'Things are bound to get a lot more interesting with Eve in charge...'

Eve walked up to me and dropped something into my paw. It was a small black box. "I caught this on the way down. Be more careful." She winked as she walked off. Realizing what it was, I quickly hid it away in my now soaked bag and followed after her. The others followed suit.

* * *

**Cyprus Town:**

A few minutes of walking later and we reached what at first looked to be a large forest. However upon closer inspection, the forest seemed to be hollowed out deeper in. We continued walking along a small dirt path that seemingly lead straight to town, however we were stopped halfway by the sound of a panicked voice.

Eve's ears shot up on alert. "Someone's yelling. Is that who we're looking for?"

My ears perked up as I tried to make out something distinctive about the voice. It sounded female, and rather close. "Well whoever they are, they're close. It's nothing that's not worth checking out. What do you say Eve?"

Eve nodded. "I think they're over this way." She said as she dashed to the right. We all followed after her, jumping over tree roots and dodging vines until the voice grew so loud that it could be within a few feet of us.

"See anything?" Alex asked aloud as we searched for the source.

Ally looked over at a set of vines with a curious glance before walking towards them and disappearing around the back of them. "Guys, I found her!"

"Her?" I asked as we made our way over to the same set of vines. 'So it was a girl'. Once behind the vines, we saw Ally attempting to free another eevee from a massive entanglement of vines, completely separate from the others. Upon closer inspection, the poor girl was in tears and appeared to have a large cut just above her right eye. 'Someone did this to her...'

"Guys, back away. I'll get her." I instructed as I approached the vines and took out my wand. Placing one of my paws under the eevee to make sure she didn't fall, I quickly flicked the wand outwards towards the vines, sending out a pink pulse of energy. The pulse hit the vines, making them glow slightly before they vanished, leaving me to catch the eevee safely in my arms.

Noticing that she was free the eevee opened her left eye, her right remaining closed due to the stream of blood that was coming from the cut just above it. "H-huh? W-who are you?"

I smiled down at her, trying my best to keep her calm. "I'm Austin. Are you ok?" I asked her, reaching for an extra scarf I had found to help stop the bleeding.

She nodded slowly, pain clear in her expression when I pressed the scarf to her wound. "Y-yes... H-have you s-seen my trainer? I d-don't know where I am and I w-want to find him."

Her words took me by surprise. 'Trainer? Did she mean pokemon trainer?' "Trainer? And who might this trainer be?" I asked her, trying to be as open-minded as possible.

"Well... He has the same name as you... Austin. And he went missing a long time ago. I went looking for him when he went missing." She replied.

A look of realization hit my face. In my memories, I had started to remember bits and pieces of different parts of the human world. One of which included an eevee that I had dismissed as something random up until now. "Are you...Rosa?"

She looked up at me confused. "Y-yes... H-how did you know that?"

I smiled. "Because I'm your trainer." I replied as I hugged the eevee, who still seemed rather confused by the situation.

"You are? But...but he was a human. You're a pikachu." She explained.

I pulled away and nodded. "I used to be the human you're talking about. It's a long story." I turned to Eve. "We should get back to Treasure Town and see if Chimecho can stitch up this wound. I think it's been open too long for an oran berry to heal it."

Rosa flinched at the sound of the word 'stitches'. I patted her head comfortingly. "It won't hurt as much as you think. This world's different." I smiled at her.

I was finally able to clean up enough of the blood for her to open her other eye, in which tears started to form as she hugged me. "You really are my trainer!"

I smiled and patted her on the back before turning to Eve. "Ok leader. Teleport us back."

Eve looked at me in disbelief. "You actually meant that?"

I nodded. "Well I wasn't gonna lie to you. You fulfilled the terms of the agreement. To put it simply, you didn't even use a map to find a town you've never been to, and you knew how to organize the groups and supplies. Sounds like a great leader to me. Just don't run ahead anymore. That's hard to deal with."

Eve grew a wide smile, one that could possibly rival Wigglytuff's. In fact, she kinda resembled him in a way. Maybe that was it.

Eve jumped from the hype and held up her wrist-badge. "Let's go home then." She laughed as she pressed the screen and we teleported out of the forest.

* * *

**Wigglytuff's Guild, Eve's POV:**

"Hold still, it's ok." Said Chimecho gently as she stitched up Rosa's wound. Rosa winced as Chimecho finished her job. It was clear that she didn't enjoy it in the least. I didn't blame her. I wouldn't either.

Soon Chimecho finished stitching the wound and Rosa jumped into Austin's arms and hugged him around the neck. Whatever a trainer was, he must've been a great one. The two seemed pretty close.

"So Austin, it uhh...looks like you and Ally have someone to take care of now." I teased him.

His and Ally's faces lit up bright red. "T-that's not what this is Eve! Right Ally?"

Ally nodded nervously in agreement. "Y-yeah! We're way too young for that!"

I rolled my eyes. "Fine. Have it your way. You'll be married soon anyway." I laughed, causing them a second wave of blushes.

"E-Eve!" They both complained. I simply smirked and put on my best teasing face.

"Aww, see? You even speak at the same time. That's gotta mean it's coming soon." I laughed, this time receiving brighter blushes from the two as they sighed.

Austin shook his head and turned to Alex. "Alex, I didn't get a chance to give this to you before, but I think you'll be more interested in this than I will. Trade swords with me."

Alex seemed confused. "Trade swords? Why? Aren't they exactly the same?"

Austin shook his head. "Ehh, not exactly. See we found this sanctum on the way to the expedition site. There we found this strange red gem and got my sword enchanted."

Alex looked down at Austin's sword in curiosity. "Enchanted huh? Let me see it."

I jumped in excitement. "You found a red gem?! Can I see it?!" I exclaimed, interrupting the two.

Austin sighed. "Alright fine, but Connor said he wanted it back tonight. I was just borrowing it to see what its glowing was about."

"It's glowing?! That's so cool! Let me see!" I pressured him excitedly. He quickly dug around in his treasure bag and pulled out a glowing red gem before passing it to me and turning back to talk to Alex.

Me, I was too interested in staring at the gem in my own amazement. It really was cool. It was a decently large red diamond-like gem that appeared to be glowing with some sort of red energy. It didn't seem dangerous, so I just sat there and examined it. Despite its color and the glowing, it still produced a crystal clear reflection of my face when I looked into it.

I kept up my observations for a while before something strange happened. While I was staring at my reflection in the gem, I saw a face in it other than my own. It was only there for a second, but I didn't think I imagined it. I also thought I saw my eyes change color, but then again I was staring at a red gem when my eyes were pink. Still, the face was the weird part, and that excited me.

"Guys! I just saw a face thing in the gem's reflection!" I exclaime to my soon to be perplexed friends. They all stared at me like I was crazy.

Austin let out a sigh. "That's just your reflection Eve." He attempted to explain to me, but I shook my head in protest.

"Nope! I saw this other face staring back at me. It wasn't my own, because I could see that too. It looked really weird though, and then it was gone." I explained, only contributing more to the worried looks I was recieving. I mean, I guess I could understand why my explanation sounded crazy, but I saw what I saw.

Austin shook his head. "Eve, I think the light from the glowing was just playing tricks on you. What you're saying doesn't make sense, even though a lot of things don't make sense anymore."

"Ugh, whatever..." I gave in as I placed the gem in my treasure bag. "By the way, what were you guys saying about swords? Was it cool?!"

Alex smiled. "Actually yes." He replied. "Though if you want to see it we're probably going to have to leave the guild. I doubt enchantments would be good for unknowing people to see."

At the word 'enchantment', my tail started on auto-pilot as I nearly jumped from excitement. "Really?! Then let's go now! I wanna see!" I exclaimed as I pushed Alex forward and sped up the ladders and out of the guild. Luckily I wasn't going too fast this time, because I nearly ran into Maril and Azuril as I sped out. The two seemed pretty worried though, as opposed to their usual overexcited selves.

Alex, having caught his breath from that last sprint up the ladders, approached Maril. "Hello Maril. Is everything alright with you and your sister today?"

Maril looked nervous as she pulled out a piece of paper. "Well umm...we wanted to ask your team for help. You see, the item we lost was found by someone else before we could get to it, and we found this note instead..." She explained as she handed Alex the note.

I read it over his shoulder, immediately noticing the poor handwriting it was written in. I could barely make out the words, but it became very apparent that this was a ransom note. I was pretty sure I knew who wrote it too, which only made me angrier. "Who writes a ransom note to kids?!"

Alex shook his head. "I was thinking the same thing, but they sure didn't do a good job at hiding who they were. Team Skull just hit a new low."

Just then, Austin, Ally and Rosa appeared out of the guild's entrance. "Hey Eve, I thought you weren't gonna run ahead anymore?" Austin questioned me.

I rolled my eyes. "Austin, we don't have time to joke. We've got to go take down Team Skull again." I told him, resulting in a confused expression from the pikachu.

"Team Skull? I thought you guys already took care of them?" He questioned.

I nodded. "Me too, but they just sent Maril and Azuril a ransom note for their lost thingy. We need to go get it back."

He looked shocked. "A ransom note? Who does that to kids?!"

"I know right? Where are the others? This is gonna be another big mission. I think I've heard of the place that's mentioned in the note. It's called Amp Plains and is supposed to be a pretty brutal dungeon. We'll need two groups again I think." I explained.

Austin nodded. "The others should be back at the house. I'll contact them. Rosa can stay with your parents."

Rosa didn't seem to like that last statement, as she frowned and waved her tail back and fourth in annoyance. "But I don't want to stay behind master! I wanna go!"

Austin seemed surprised. "Master? Ok first, don't call me that. It sounds demeaning. Second, this mission is dangerous. I really don't think you should come."

Rosa huffed. "But ma-I mean Austin! I want to go! You trained me to be strong remember?" She argued. If only that were true. He still didn't remember everything to my knowledge. I was surprised he remembered any of this.

Austin shook his head. "I know I did, but this world has more dangerous places than the one we came from." He argued back, but Rosa was persistent.

"I don't care. I want to help." She insisted, resulting in a sigh from Austin.

"...Alright. I guess you can come. Just stay close to me ok? I don't want you getting hurt." He asked her, attempting to make a deal.

She smiled, apparently ready to accept anything if it meant she could go. "Yay! Thank you Austin! I promise I will!" She jumped towards him, hugging him tightly as she did so.

I however had a question on my mind. "Hey Austin, what exactly is a pokemon trainer? Rosa just said you trained her, but why? Can't pokemon train themselves in your world."

Austin looked thoughtful. "Well I'm sure they can, but in my world humans like to well...befriend pokemon and go on adventures with them. Since humans can't use attacks, pokemon help protect them and also compete alongside trainers in battle competitions and stuff. Training is just learning how to work together in order to win in battle. The trainer usually calls out what attacks to use in order to help the pokemon, though I suppose it doesn't have to be that way. I've never thought of it too much."

I tilted my head. "Really? But I thought humans couldn't talk to pokemon. How do you befriend them?"

Rosa smiled excitedly. "Oh that's easy. First they battle us to impress us. Then they capture us in these weird ball thingies. They don't keep us in them all the time, but it's strangely fun in them. I don't really understand the ball part, but I guess there's some reason for it. Austin never kept us in them though."

Austin turned to her in confusion. "Wait. So you're telling me that battling wild pokemon is to impress them?"

Rosa nodded. "Yeah. Every pokemon knows that. If a human comes up to you with a red ball thingy, they're supposed to defeat you in battle. If they don't, you win and you don't go with them. It's pretty fun to do. We even consider it a sport I think."

Austin looked like he didn't know what to say. "Ohh uhh... Ok. Wow. Didn't know that."

Rosa laughed at his response. "That's because humans don't pay attention. You just get caught up in trying to catch us. That's why a lot of you lose. You should've seen the professor try to catch me. Even though I was a little kid, I could still get away."

"You still are a little kid." Austin commented, ruffling the fur atop her head. "Still, we should get going. I've already contacted the others and they agreed to head to the dungeon on their own route. So, what do you say leader?"

"Huh?" I sounded, having temporarily forgotten that I was leader. Oh yeah! Umm, we should head out guys! I know the perfect way there too." I smiled as I turned around.

"Let me guess. This route involves thrill seeking?" Austin guessed.

I laughed. "And why would it not? That's the fun part of exploring." I smiled as I began to descend the stairs. Man I loved being the leader.

* * *

**Crossroads, Flare's POV:**

So it seemed like things were finally getting back to normal. So far after arriving back from the expedition, nothing too strange had happened and we were able to resume business as usual. Regardless, we had just received word from Austin about our first large scale mission since getting back, so Luke, Esuna, Riley and I were currently waiting calmly by the water well at the crossroads for Drew to come back with supplies. Oddly Connor had decided to stay behind. I just decided to shrug it off. Perhaps he was just feeling sick, though it didn't stop me from worrying about him. He had been down ever since we'd come back. It was strange.

"Alright you three, I think I've got everything. We can go ahead and leave for Amp Plains." Drew called out to us as he entered the area.

I ran up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for doing that for me." I thanked him, nuzzling his cheek.

He blushed slightly and nodded. "No problem sweetheart." He smiled, kissing me back. "You ready to go?"

I nodded. "Yeah. We're all set. You heard from Connor?"

He shook his head. "No, not really. I think he's upset about the Alex and Eve thing. I feel sorry for him..." He replied. "I'm sure he'll be fine after a while though. No one stays in the dumps forever."

I sighed. "I hope so..." I then turned towards Luke and Esuna. "Alright. Let's go."

* * *

**Outside Dungeon - Amp Plains:**

So the route we took to the dungeon was fairly straight forward. There weren't any dungeons around and there didn't seem to be any detours. We ended up reaching our destination within an hour without any complications.

I held my wrist up at eye level so I could examine the new wristband-like badge that Alex had made for us. Tapping the screen, I did a quick scan of the holographic map to ensure that we had arrived at the right location before looking up at the darkened sky above the area. The weather was seemingly unnatural given that the storm clouds seemed to just appear out of nowhere just above what I presumed to be the dungeon, but I guess that was just a side effect of this dungeon on the environment.

"You thinking electric type dungeon?" Esuna asked me, having noticed the intense lightning that lit up the sky just above the top of the dungeon.

I nodded. "I don't think we'll have a problem with type disadvantages, but something tells me there's some tough pokemon in there. We should be careful." I replied, having a bad feeling about what lurked at the end of this one. I didn't personally know Team Skull, but from what I've heard about them from Eve they had to have been plotting some sort of revenge with this place.

"Right. I'm not too big a fan of getting shocked anyway. Let's see if we can avoid that." She smiled as she walked back over to Luke.

I took a second to check with Drew and the supplies before walking up to the entrance to the dungeon and beckoning for the other to follow. As soon as they were ready, we entered.

* * *

**Amp Plains:**

It had become increasingly apparent upon entering the dungeon that this would be our most difficult dungeon yet. Resident pokemon attacked from every possible corner and didn't show any signs of slowing down. Of course it didn't help that most of them were electric type, so they had the advantage with ranged attacks, but still we pushed forward. Surprisingly, Esuna had managed to fulfill her hopes of not getting electrocuted so far.

"How are you avoiding all of these electric attacks?" I asked her while rolling out of the way of a thunderbolt.

She shrugged. "Luck I guess. I just really hate the feeling of getting blasted by electricity. My fur's really standing on end though. I can't stand this static."

Now that she mentioned it, my fur did feel quite staticky all of a sudden. "Man, is this how Austin's fur feels? How can Ally enjoy this? I'd probably shock myself if I touched my own tails."

"I think it has something to do with Austin's magical typing. His is elemental, which must make his fur's static electricity pacifying to the touch." Esuna replied. She sure knew a lot about magic, though I guess it was no surprise knowing her parents.

"So why do you think Team Skull chose this place?" I asked her after using flamethrower on an electrike.

She shrugged. "I'm not sure, but it's got to have something to do with getting revenge on Alex and Eve. For one reason or the other they can't stand those two."

"Hmm..." I pondered. I shrugged it off. Guess we can deal with it when we get there.

Right as a dry spell in enemy pokemon hit, Riley flew forward between us and face-planted into the ground. "Ugh... Stupid fling trap things..." Esuna laughed at him as he got up and dusted himself off. "Oh hey guys. What's up?"

Esuna made sure to stop laughing once he was up, but I could still see the amusement in her eyes. "Oh just talking. Did you run into some trouble back there? Please don't tell me your trap triggering streak returned.

He let out a huff. "No. I avoided it the first time. Luke bumped me back into it." He replied, glaring back at Luke who gave him an apologetic look.

Esuna shook her head. "Always clumsy. Never change my friend." She pat him on the back. "I think the stairs are over that way. Hopefully that's the end."

I looked over in the direction she pointed. Surely enough the stairs were there, but something seemed a bit off. "Esuna, I think we might be walking into an ambush. Don't you think it's a bit strange that all the pokemon have stopped attacking us?"

Esuna nodded. "Now that you mention it, yes. That was a bit of a sudden change... We need to take some time to-"

"Ok then, let's get out of this place!" Riley interrupted her as he shot off towards the stairs, ignoring our protests. He reached the stairs before the obvious ambush was triggered, but all we could do at the moment was shake our heads.

"Will he ever learn?" I asked out loud.

"I doubt it. I've been trying to teach him for years..." Esuna replied.

"Ugh... I'm not looking forward to this teleportation..." Luke complained before we teleported to the next floor.

* * *

**End of Dungeon:**

Despite having new badges, the disorientation from being teleported to the next floor by a teammate was still horrid. At least the next floor was actually the exit though.

"Ugh... My head..." I moaned as I rubbed my head and attempted to get up. Once I finally did I gazed up at the sky, only to come face to face with the most lightning-filled sky I had ever seen. It was like watching fireworks... Deadly, scary fireworks. We all jumped when the thunder boomed overhead, shaking the very foundation of the area we were in, which was just the same as the dungeon we had come out of moments before. Barren and rocky. Not much else to it other than the small rock formation that jutted up from the center of the room.

Once we were all on our feet, we regrouped and advanced. Eve's group was late as it seems. There didn't seem to be anyone else here though, yet my senses were on high alert. My eyes caught sight of something at the very back of the room and I smiled. "Hey guys, I think I found the item!" I informed them as I attempted to approach it, but immediately backed away when a voice boomed out from out of nowhere."

"Who dares to invade our territory?! You four! Be prepared to fall! Intruders shall not be allowed to leave!" Shouted the unseen foe.

Now I know what the revenge was. There were territorial pokemon here. "We didn't mean to invade your territory. We just came here to-"

"Silence! I have no need for your pathetic excuses! Prepare to be defeated!"

Then in a sudden flash of electricity, we were surrounded by a large group of luxio, with a luxray that was apparently the leader. "Guys, I don't think we have a choice here." I said to the group as the luxio started closing in, electricity crackling in their fur. That's when it happened. All of them let loose massive amounts of electricity, but just as suddenly as it appeared, it vanished. A giant shockwave pulsed out and threw all of our assailants against the walls of the room. Dead silence followed.

* * *

**Route to Amp Plains, Austin's POV:**

"Eve, did you have to take the fun route? I think this route is longer than the one Flare took." I asked her as we slid down a hill of sand.

She turned to me once we stopped. "Oh come on. Don't be such a kill joy. Exploring is about having fun right? So why can't we do that?"

I sighed. "Guess there's no convincing you otherwise. At least you're going it for things now." I smiled. "But seriously, where are we?"

"About a half mile away from the dungeon. Why?" She asked me, as if the answer was obvious.

I just stood there. "How do you know exactly how far we are from the dungeon? You don't even have a map and you've never been there before."

She shrugged. "I already told you. I don't know."

I shook my head. "But still. That's an insane ability. Why haven't you used it before?"

"Beats me. Haven't really thought about it much. I just love exploring. Anyways, the dungeon should just be a little ways this way. Let's get go-"

She suddenly stopped and tackled me to the ground. "Ugh, hey! What was that for?!" I asked her angrily, only to receive my answer when a black orb exploded against the ground a few feet away from us. "Asked and answered." I followed up as we both got to our feet. As soon as we did however, a light purple barrier rose up from the ground behind us, effectively separating us from the rest of our group as we heard a sickening laugh.

"Heheheh! Well well well. If it isn't the magicless twin and the pikachu brat. I thought I might come across you sooner or later." Said Shade as he walked out from his hiding spot behind a boulder."

I glared at him. "What do you want Shade? We don't have time for you right now, and you're not getting Ally."

He laughed yet again. "Oh it's not Ally that I'm after, boy. But believe me I will get back to that soon enough. I'm simply here to collect a prize that I believe one of you possess."

"Prize? What prize? We don't have what you want, so get lost!" I shouted at him, seemingly amusing him.

"Oh no, that's not how this works. You see, if you didn't have what I seek, I wouldn't be here. I suppose you lack the knowledge of what you possess however, so this would be the perfect opportunity for me to take it off your hands." He smiled wickedly as he pulled out a wand and waved it around erratically. I tried to determine what he was attempting to do but before I could, several large black spheres were hurled at us at to speed.

Realizing there was nowhere else to go, I pushed Eve out of the way and dived to the side. The spheres whizzed past my head and exploded against the barrier.

"Austin! Eve! Be careful in there!" I heard Ally exclaim from the outside. It appeared that the barrier was some sort of dome.

I quickly pulled out my wand and created a yellow magic circle on the floor below myself. It started spinning quickly just as I ran ahead towards him at a quick pace. That turned out to be a bad idea as he just released a barrage of black metallic shards, each daring to slice through me. I attempted to turn back, but realized that I couldn't move. "Ugh! Just great!" I complained.

I looked up just in time to see a giant beam of dark energy approaching me at top speed. Only having time to close my eyes, I turned my head away from the beam just as an explosion rang out through the entire area, yet I felt nothing.

Opening my eyes again, I turned my head back around to see another pikachu standing in front of me with their arm in front of me in a protective position. I looked up to see that the pikachu was female by the shape of her tail. She was holding a wand out in front of herself in a position I recognized as a barrier position, and a golden magic circle was circling vertically in front of her.

"Uhh-uhm... Hello?" I said to her causing her to look back at me. It was probably not the most appropriate thing to say for the situation, but I couldn't come up with much else. My eyes met hers and I froze. They were a beautiful golden color. My mind immediately flew back to the note that Eve had delivered to me, but I was torn from my thoughts before I could process what was going on.

I heard Shade growl. "Rrgh! Emma! What are you doing here?!"

'Wait a minute. Emma?' The pikachu, now known as Emma, laughed. "Hmm? Long time no see Shady-boy. How've you been holding up?"

Shade growled. "I told you to stop calling me that a long time ago! Now move aside! I have business to attend to!"

Emma sighed. "Sorry Shade, but I can't do that. You didn't think you were going to get away with whatever you wanted forever did you? Honestly Shady, I never thought you could get any denser."

"Ugh! You'll regret this Emma! I'll be back soon enough! And next time that boy of yours better be ready to defend himself!" He shouted as he disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

'Emma? Boy of hers? Was she my...' "Mom?" I asked her, causing her to turn around yet again. "Is that you?"

She gave me a very motherly smile. "What do you think you little spark? Of course it's me." She joked, hugging me tightly. "Oh I missed you so much!"

"You? Miss me? I think you've gotten things mixed up here. I'm the one with the memory glitch." I laughed, hugging her back.

She smiled, pulling away slightly to look at me. "Yes, I guess that would be a slight problem now wouldn't it? Arceus has got to stop that ridiculous policy of his."

"Umm, excuse me. Emma was it? What's going on here?" Eve asked, walking over to us. The others approached as well, the barrier having disappeared along with Shade.

"Hmm?" Mom faced Eve curiously. "You must be..." She took a second to think. "Wait a minute, are you Evening Grace?"

Eve nodded. "Yep! Awesome huh?! Why do you ask?"

Mom looked at me with surprise. "You're affiliated with the Grace Family?"

I laughed. "Affiliated? More like attached to." I replied as I relieved myself of her grip and walked over to Ally. "Mom, this is my girlfriend, Ally."

At that, she looked at me with even more surprise. "You're dating one of Ella's daughters?"

I nodded. "Have been for a while."

She smiled. "Huh. How strange can life get?"

"So...Mom. Where's Dad? Shouldn't he be with you?" I asked her.

She seemed troubled, looking down as I said that. "Well yes...but there was a bit of a problem and well...your father is missing..."

"What?! What do you mean he's missing?! Where could he have gone?!" I exclaimed.

She shook her head. "If only I knew. But that's why I've been searching for the twins. I need to find Ella. I believe she can help."

Ally seemed confused. "How could our mom help?"

"Because she placed a tracking spell on him long ago. I wanted to see if it was still in tact. It seems that I'll be meeting with her soon though, so that's good."

Eve laughed. "Alright then! Change of plans! Flare's group can handle the mission! We're going home!"

Why did she sound so excited about that. "Alright then." I sighed as I picked up the bag that I had dropped in the fight. As I was doing so, I thought I saw something red dart behind a rock, but I dismissed it as my imagination as I finished and stood back up. "Let's go."

* * *

**Amp Plains, Flare's POV:**

After all of the enemy were down, the others approached me with worried expressions on their faces.

"Flare... What's the matter with your eyes?" Drew asked me, looking at me oddly.

I quickly shut them in order to hide them. 'They saw it...they saw the pattern...'


	14. Role Model!

 

* * *

**_"Role models are the driving force of the dreams of the youth. May they never lose their fire."_ **

* * *

**2:00pm: Amp Plains, Flare's POV:**

"Flare? Flare. What's the matter?" I heard Drew ask as I held my eyes closed. I just couldn't let them see my eyes. Not right now! It wasn't until I felt someone embrace me that I realized I had been shaking. I stopped shaking and opened my eyes to find myself in Drew's arms. "Are you ok Flare?"

"O-oh umm... Y-yeah... I am..." I replied, a bit shaken up.

He let out a relieved sigh. "Well that's good. Want to tell me what happened?"

I shook my head. "Can we just go home?" I asked him as I rested my head against him.

He nodded and tightened the hug. "Alright guys. Go ahead and grab the water float. I've got Flare." He said to the others before kissing me on the cheek. "You ok to walk?"

"Carry me?" I pouted. He chuckled.

"Alright, fine. Hold on though." He smiled, hoisting me onto his back before turning around. "You guys find it yet?" He asked the others.

Luke held up an odd looking item. "Looks like it. We should return to the guild. Maril and Azuril will be waiting."

"Alright then. Still, it's kind of weird that Eve's group never made it. Wonder what kept them." Drew said while picking up the treasure bag.

Luke, Esuna and Riley met back up with us as Drew started messing with his badge. "Yeah, it is kind of weird. Even with Eve as leader, they should've been here by now."

Drew nodded. "We should hurry up and get this to Maril and Azuril so we can see for ourselves. There could be trouble." He suggested before tapping something on his badge. In a flash, we teleported home.

* * *

**Wigglytuff's Guild:**

Despite the item not being returned by Alex and Eve themselves, Maril and Azuril seemed happy enough. Come to think of it, I don't think I had ever met them until now.

"Oh! Thanks so much Ms. Flare!" Maril thanked me after I handed her the water float.

"Thank you too Misters Riley and Drew. Oh! And Ms. Esuna too!" Azuril thanked us in a cute attempt to be mature.

I just smiled at her, remembering how I was when I was that young. "You're welcome you two. How's your mother doing? Eve told us she was sick."

Maril nodded. "She's getting better. Ms. Chansey said she can start working again next week." She explained excitedly. "Oops! Sorry. We promised we'd go shopping for her today, so we have to hurry back before she starts to worry. See ya later Ms. Flare!" Maril said before leaving in a hurry with her sister.

I chuckled. "Those two are so cute."

Drew nudged me. "Feeling better I see?" I smirked.

I rolled my eyes a punched him playfully. "Yeah. I'm fine now. We should head home. I don't see the others around here, so maybe something happened and they went back."

Drew nodded. "To the house we go then." He said as he walked straight into a wall.

I'll admit, I laughed a bit at that. "Drew. You ok?"

"Ugh... Yeah, eheh. I'm fine. Kind of embarrassed though..." He replied as he sat up and dusted himself off.

The wall he had walked into was as clear as day. It's kind of hard to believe that he really didn't notice it. Unless... "Drew? Have you ever thought about getting glasses?"

He seemed confused. "Glasses? No. Why?"

I gestured towards the wall. "Well for starters, you walked into a wall that was in plain sight. You also said your vision wasn't perfect when your blindness was cured."

He seemed to think about it for a second. "Mmm... I guess so. I don't know anything about getting glasses though. Maybe Ella and Shard can help."

"Most likely... Regardless, we should really be getting back. If the others haven't returned yet, Ella and Shard will be expecting an explanation." I said as I started to climb the ladder. The others followed shortly after.

Despite how long it took to complete the mission, it was still pretty early in the afternoon. I just hoped the others didn't take too much longer. After descending the stairs, we bumped into Mari's team. Oddly enough, she too seemed troubled by something.

"Hmm? Oh! Hi Flare! Sorry about that." She apologized. "Kinda lost in my thoughts and everything." She paused and liked around, as if searching for something. "Hey. Where's the rest of your team? Eve get them lost or something?"

I laughed. "Well they haven't returned from our last mission, though I seriously doubt that. Eve's got a weird way about directions." I explained. "Something troubling you?"

"Troubling me?" She reiterated. "Oh. Nah. Just something on my mind, that's all."

"Yeah. That's all." Thomas muttered from off to the side, or rather attempted to.

"What was that Thomas?" Mari asked him, apparently intimidating him as he immediately shrunk back.

"O-oh. Uhh, nothing!" He lied. Lucky for him, Mari didn't seem interested.

"So. Where are you guys headed?" She asked us.

I shrugged. "Just back to our place. The others are bound to return at some point."

Mari seemed to perk up at that. "Your place huh? Mind if we tag along? The guild's alright and all, but there's not much to do besides find missions. I have a feeling a lot of interesting things happen at your place."

I shrugged. They knew about magic just like all the others at the guild, and Thomas was Austin's step brother. I didn't see a problem with it at least. "Sure I guess. Just remember not to discuss any of it with unknowing people."

Mari nodded. "Alright. Shouldn't be too hard. Right Flint?"

Flint sighed and hugged Mari with one arm. "Yeah. She's not the best at keeping secrets."

I sighed. Hopefully Flint knew how to keep royalty a secret.

* * *

**Grace Family House:**

Shortly after arriving at the house, Ella entered the living room. Surprisingly, she didn't seem surprised to see Mari and Flint. Mari however seemed surprised to see her.

"Wait... Wait a minute. Ella?" She asked as she approached her.

Ella nodded. "Yes sweetie. It's me. Hello again Mari." She replied, smiling at her.

"Wait a minute. You two know each other?" I asked the two.

Mari nodded. "Ella's the reason I'm not in prison. She got me parole, even if I didn't do what they said I did."

Ella put her paw on Mari's shoulder. "Now Mari."

Mari sighed. "I know. Still, what are you doing here?"

"That's what you should keep a secret." I spoke up. "You see, Ella here is Ally, Eve and Luke's mother."

Mari seemed surprised. "Really?! Wow. Small world... But how come I didn't meet them until now?"

"That's a long story I'm afraid." Ella answered.

Just then, the door opened as the others entered followed by a female pikachu I didn't recognize. She had oddly enchanting golden eyes.

"Finally! There you guys are!" Riley exclaimed as he ran up to Eve. "You're really slow ya know. We got here waaay before you and-" He said before Esuna put her paw over his mouth to silence him.

"And you're really annoying ya blockhead." She chuckled, hitting him across the head as she did so.

"Right, well sorry we're late but we ran into a bit of, well, trouble." Austin said as all attention was turned towards the newcomer.

Ella seemed surprised to see her. "Emma? What are you doing here?"

The pikachu, now known as Emma, smiled. "Nice to see you too Ella." She laughed. "You evolved. Pink is a good look for you. Better than that odd curly thing you had going with your fur when we were teenagers."

Ella laughed. "And it's nice to see you haven't lost your unique sense of humor Emma. But seriously, why are you here?"

Emma sighed. "A Shade attack of course. Honestly Ella, you've let him go too far. Even so, you should know by now Ella. I never go anywhere without Sam."

Ella looked worried. "You mean he's missing?"

Emma nodded. "Yes, that's exactly it. Now I'm not normally this impatient, but I've got to get straight to the point. Is the tracking spell you placed on him still in tact?"

Ella nodded. "Yes, of course. I kept it hidden away all of this time. What exactly do you mean by a Shade attack anyway?"

"I'll explain later." Emma replied. "This is urgent. Where did you hide the spell?"

Ella seemed deep in thought. "Well I'll have to search around a bit, but I'm sure we'll be able to find it in the library. Follow me." She said as she exited the living room.

Emma turned to Esuna. "You've grown well kiddo. You'll have to tell me how your parents are fairing once we find that spell. In the meantime." She said as she reached into a small bag and pulled out a small blanket. "You left this behind last time I saw you." She said as she handed the blanket over to Esuna.

Esuna looked at the blanket with a look of familiarity. "My blanket... You were there?"

Emma smiled. "Of course I was. You didn't seriously think your father could handle watching a newborn child on his own did you?" She laughed. "He was good, but not that good. Remind me to visit Marowak while I'm here. He owes me a rematch." She said as she exited the room.

Esuna sighed. "Dad always did try his best." She said as she looked down at the blanket. The blanket itself was poorly made, yet Esuna seemed to have a strong attachment to it. "So, what kept you guys so long?" She asked the others.

"Well as my mom just mentioned, Shade attacked us on our route to the dungeon. She ended up saving me from an attack, and Shade up and ran away. It was a bit odd for him, but I'm glad my mom's back. Still worried about my father." Austin replied. "How'd the mission go for you guys Flare?"

At his question, my mind immediately flew back to what I had done back there and I flinched back.

Drew intervened. "Perhaps we should stay off of that topic. Flare doesn't seem to like talking about it much." He explained in what I assumed was supposed to be a whisper. Drew was good at quite a few things, but being quiet wasn't one of them. Still, he was right.

Austin seemed worried by Drew's explanation. Thankfully he didn't question any further. "Alright, well at least we got Maril and Azuril's item back."

Just then, a loud siren blared out from somewhere. All of us quickly covered our ears to protect them from the volatile noise. "Ugh. What is that?!" I exclaimed.

"I think it's the guild siren. There must be an emergency!" Eve shouted back just as it ended.

'Ugh... They didn't have to make it so loud...'

* * *

**Wigglytuff's Guild, Eve's POV:**

Once we reached the guild, we quickly descended to the bottom floor and made our way to our spots in the assembly. Since our team had become so big, the assembly seemed to reach back towards the back of the room. It was pretty funny actually.

After everyone was settled, Chatot cleared his throat to get our attention. "Ahem. Pardon the sudden and rather, erm, deafening siren, but I'm afraid there has been a tragic development in the case of these stolen time gears." At the sound of those two words, the entire mood of the room changed. Everyone was suddenly serious and alert. Well, except Austin. He kept staring at something at the front of the room. "Yes. It seems that the time gear from Fogbound Lake has been stolen."

With that statement, everyone looked shocked. "How is this possible? No one said a word about what went down at the lake!"

"Well... What if one of us did? What if one of us told someone, and word got out?" Loudred speculated.

Loudred had said some pretty ugly things in the past, but that was uncalled for. "What's the matter with you Loudred?! Don't you have faith in your friends?! No one here would've broken that promise!" I shouted angrily, which only seemed to make him mad.

"Oh really? Well maybe you did it then. You are a newbie after all and your team's only here during assembly." He retorted.

"What'd you say?!" I questioned him angrily. I knew Loudred was famous for making people mad, but this was ridiculous.

Before he could respond, Chatot interrupted us with the flapping of his wings. "Now now. No need to be blaming fellow guild members. This is a state of emergency. We need all of you to cooperate. Now, as it stands, Uxie has come fourth and identified the culprit. His wanted plaster is on the bulletin board behind me." Chatot said as he gestured behind him, only to get a close up view of Austin.

"What the?" I mumbled as I looked to the side and found him missing from his spot. "How did he-?"

Chatot looked just as confused as I was. "Erm. Austin. Might I ask what you are doing up here?"

Austin turned around nervously, his paws behind his back as he faced Chatot. "Oh uhh. Heheh. Ya see... I saw this interesting looking mission and well... I'll just go back to my spot now." He smiled weekly as he ran back to his spot.

Chatot sighed. "Yes... Well what I was about to say was that the culprit has been identified as Grovyle. Both in name and appearance. Uxie said he ran off immediately after stealing the time gear, and that he was incredibly tough."

I'll admit. After that last part, I kind of zoned out. To be fair, Flare looked terrified for some reason and left with Drew. Stuff like that tends to preoccupy your mind. After the assembly, the rest of us regrouped. Austin also seemed to be preoccupied. He kept staring at the mission he had so subtly taken from the board during the assembly.

I walked over to him and pat him on the shoulder. "Hey Austin. You in there? Don't tell me you're just gonna stare at that paper all day."

He tore his attention away from the page to look at me before a worried expression hit his face. "Guys, we have a big problem."

With that, all eyes were on him as he held up the piece of parchment in his paws. "This is for our eyes only, but..." He said as he turned the paper around so we could see it. It was a wanted poster of Flare! Now I could understand why he was acting so strange.

"Wait a minute. Is that-!" Riley was about to say, but was immediately silenced by Esuna.

"Yes." Austin sighed as he placed the poster in his bag. "I don't understand it, but that is her."

I looked down, trying to come up with a possible solution to this. "Well... What does it, ya know, say about her?"

Austin looked at me and shook his head. "You don't want to know."

That's what scared me the most. What could she have possibly done? It didn't make any sense.

Ally put her paw on my shoulder. "Perhaps we should change the subject for now. Drew took Flare home. He was her friend before we knew her so he should know something. We can ask him later."

What Ally said made me relax a bit. "So Austin, did you happen to hear what Chatot wanted us all to do?" Ally asked the obviously clueless pikachu. Austin shrugged, causing her to laugh. "Thought so. He wanted us to visit a place called the Northern Desert to search for the next time gear. He wants us to stop Grovyle."

I thought about it for a second. "Hmm... Austin, Ally, Riley, Rosa. I need you guys to stay here and keep an eye on Flare tomorrow while Alex, Luke, Esuna and I check the Northern Desert. I don't feel comfortable with leaving Drew alone with Flare. She looked pretty scared during the assembly. And Connor's still pretty down. I doubt he'll be any help."

They all nodded. "Well said Eve. We should head back home and check on Flare. I think today's been stressful enough." Austin replied before we left for home.

* * *

**8:00am, Grace Family House:**

Ya know the happy mornings I usually have where I wake up in Alex's arms and we cuddle for a moment and everything feels nice and peaceful? Yeah, that didn't happen this morning. This time I woke up to shouting and accidentally banged my head against the back of the headboard. "Ugh... That didn't feel nice..." I muttered to myself as I sat up and held my forehead.

Alex sat up as well to check if I was ok. "You ok?"

"Ugh. Yeah. Just a bruise. What's all the yelling about anyway?" I asked as I hopped out of bed and opened the door. Drew greeted me with a distressed expression once I did so, causing me to step back a bit. Uhh Drew? You ok there?"

He sighed. "No. Not at all! Flare's missing and I've been trying to get you guys up for half an hour!"

"Flare's missing?! Why didn't you say so?! Let's go Alex!" I shouted as I ran out of the room. As I ran down the hall, I knocked on a certain part of the doors of each of our teammates' rooms that would make water shower down onto them from buckets I had installed for cases like this... Or just for fun in general.

Alex and I sat down in the living room, and a few seconds later, everyone else walked in looking very much wet and irritated. Well, everyone except for Connor. I didn't want to upset him more.

"What's with the water Eve?! It's a little early for pranks don't ya think?!" Ally yelled, looking like a walking mop. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Heh, sorry Ally, but I needed to get you all up quick. Also, you might want to dry off before going out. I don't think mops count as explorers." I laughed again, earning me a quick punch from my sister.

Alex stood up. "Anyway, like Eve said. We're in a hurry. Flare seems to be missing."

With that, the annoyed bickering stopped and the room went quiet. "Missing? What do you mean she's missing?" Esuna asked.

"Exactly that. I woke up and Flare was gone. No note. No anything." Drew explained. After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, he continued. "But I think I have an idea as to where she went. It's the same place we chose to go through on our route to the expedition. I believe it's also a town that you guys visited on your patrol test. Auburn Town."

"That place? Why would she go there?" I asked him.

He sighed. "That's something you're going to have to ask her."

Austin nodded. "Ok then. Ally, Riley, Rosa, Drew and I will head to Auburn Town to find Flare. Eve. Why don't you and the others take a break before heading off to the Northern Desert? You need to be focused if you're going to take on Grovyle."

I nodded. "Alright. Just find Flare and bring her back." I replied as they left, Ally attempting to dry herself with magic as they did so.

"Well I don't know about you guys, but I've got stuff to do. See ya later!" I said as I zipped out the door.

"Umm... Ok?" Alex replied.

* * *

**Somewhere in Treasure Town:**

Since I had time before our mission, I decided to get some training in. Even if I didn't have magic, I could still train for battling and stuff. Ally was way better than me at all that acrobatic stuff, so it was clear that I still had a lot of work to do. I was stopped on my way to my training spot by the sound of a kid crying. I turned my head to see two buneary. One of them, who seemed a bit older, was trying to calm the younger one down. I decided to investigate.

"Is something wrong." I asked the older buneary as I walked up to them.

The buneary looked up at me and sighed. "Well sort of. I'm just trying to calm my little brother down. He lost his balloon a while ago to a gust of wind and hasn't calmed down since." Replied the buneary, female by her voice.

I nodded. "I see. What's his name?"

"Adam. I'm Amy. Nice to meet you umm."

"Eve." I finished for her with a smile before getting down on level with her brother. "Hey Adam. Wanna see a cool trick?" I asked him enthusiastically. This seemed to get his attention as he stopped crying for a moment and looked at me. I quickly took a poké coin from my bag and held it out for him to see. I then took the coin and held it behind my back for a second before revealing a balloon tied to a string. The kid's eyes went wide from what he saw. "Cool huh?" I smiled at him. "The coin's even attached to the string so the balloon won't fly away."

With that the kid smiled and I handed him the balloon before standing back up. "How'd you do that?" Amy asked me, surprise evident in her voice.

I smirked. "Just a little trick I picked up somewhere. Anyway, I wish I could stick around but I've gotta go. See ya around!" I smiled as I began walking away.

"Thank you!" She shouted after me as I headed for my training spot.

* * *

**Field Outside of Treasure Town:**

I found this training spot a while back when we were competing in the tournament. It was a nice and sunny field on most days with lots of flowers. There were plenty of rocks scattered around the place for target practice and there was this big tree that provided a decent amount of shade for relaxing. Come to think of it, this would also make a great spot for a date...

Anyway, I was about to start target practice, a shadow ball readied in my paw instead of the front of my muzzle like usual, when I heard someone giggling off to my side. I canceled out the shadow ball and looked to my left to see a slightly younger eevee sitting under the tree.

"That's so cool! How do you get the shadow ball to form in your paw like that?!" The kid asked me as I stared at her in confusion.

"Umm... Who are you?" I asked the kid, female by her voice, as I walked over to her.

"Me? Oh! Eheheh. Sorry." She laughed nervously. "My name's Lisa. I saw you fight in the tournament a while back and you were so awesome! That thing you did with your sister! And how you beat up that chimchar! It was so cool!"

I smiled a bit at her enthusiasm. "Oh really now?"

Lisa nodded. "Yeah. I saw you walking through town today and I just had to see you train. You're an explorer right? Man, I wanna be just like you when I get older. Traveling around, beating up bad guys and finding treasure. That is what you do right? I don't know much about guilds..."

I chuckled and ruffled the fur atop the younger eevee's head. "I like you kid." I smiled. "You sound like me when I was little. Tell ya what. How about you train with me? I could use the company. I've had a pretty stressful morning."

The eevee's eyes lit up as she smiled widely. "What?! Really?!" When I nodded, she embraced me in a tight hug. "Thank you Eve!"

I chuckled and pat her on the back. "No problem." I replied as she let go. "Hmm... Maybe you could help me come up with some new stuff too." I said as I created a shadow ball and stared at it for a second before canceling it out and looking back at Lisa.

"So. What do you think about waterfall diving?" I smirked.


	15. The Mark!

* * *

**_"Hatred is the true evil of the world. The gruesome secret hidden within the shadows of the beings it ensnares. With hatred brings pain, and with pain sets fourth an endless cycle of hatred. And so begins the legacy of sorrow..."_ **

* * *

**Clearing, Eve's POV:**

"Great! Now try focusing the energy in your paw instead of your mouth!" I instructed Lisa as she attempted to form a shadow ball above her paw. Lisa was surprisingly talented. I mean, I know I said she reminded me of myself, as evident when she jumped off the waterfall without hesitation, but I didn't expect her to be such a fast learner.

"Umm... Like this?" She asked me as a small ball of dark energy sprung to life just above her upturned paw before growing dramatically in size.

I smiled widely as a strange surge of excitement coursed through me. Was it excitement? I wasn't sure how to describe it. "Awesome kid! That's perfect!" I congratulated her. "Now. Try throwing it at that bolder."

She seemed to smirk as she pulled her paw back and launched the shadow ball straight at the bolder, scoring a direct hit. The shadow ball exploded upon impact and the bolder was obliterated.

We just stood there looking at each other for a moment before our faces broke out into excited grins and we gave each other a high three. "That was awesome!" We said simultaneously before turning back to the destroyed bolder.

I looked over the damage. "That was a pretty large bolder. You've got a pretty strong shadow ball kid!" I complemented as I smiled down at her.

Lisa looked up at me a bit embarrassed. "Eheheh. Thanks Eve. I umm... I've never really thought of myself as strong..."

I smirked. "Well start thinking it! That was impressive!" I praised as I looked at her slyly. "You sure you haven't been trained before?"

She shook her head. "Nope. This is the first time I've trained with someone else." She replied before looking at me expectantly.

"What?" I chuckled, not getting what she wanted me to do.

Her eyes lit up. "Can you show me something else?! Something more awesome?!" She asked me, practically jumping from excitement.

I laughed. "Ok ok. Just give me a sec." I smiled, ruffling her head fur. I had run into a problem. I didn't know much else other than the usual paw strikes and attacks. I couldn't let her down, but... Hmm...

"Alright Lisa. I think I've got something. This is kinda similar to the shadow ball thing so pay close attention." I told her as I attempted to charge up an energy ball in the same fashion as the shadow ball. Was it normal that I knew how to use energy ball?

After a moment of concentration, a sphere of energy eventually formed above my paw... but it didn't look at all like what I had expected. The sphere was multicolored and shone brightly towards its center. Interestingly enough the sphere also emitted a soft hum. Ribbons of energy seemingly identical in color to the sphere itself rocketed outwards in multiple different directions as it rotated. Was it rotating faster or something?

Before I had the chance to think on it more, Lisa tore me away from my thoughts. "Woah! That's so cool! How did you do that?!" She asked me as she stared at the sphere in awe.

I tried to answer, but came up short when I realized that I had no idea what this was. The energy of the sphere just looked... odd. I sighed. "Sorry Lisa. I don't really know... This kinda just happened..."

Lisa looked a bit disappointed, but still seemed excited. "Oh... Well don't waste it! Throw that... whatever it is!"

I smiled at her enthusiasm. "Alright. Guess it couldn't hurt." I replied as I launched the odd sphere of energy towards another bolder. Upon making contact however, there was a sudden flash of light before...

"Get down!" I shouted as I grabbed Lisa and dove behind the tree, shielding her with my body. Luckily we hadn't strayed too far from it while training.

In an instant, there was a huge, earth shattering explosion behind us. The light from the explosion was so bright that we had to shield our eyes to avoid going blind. I could practically hear the tree as it bent backwards from the rush of air that was displaced as a result.

Seconds later, the wind stopped and I opened my eyes and got up. Peaking around the tree, my eyes widened considerably at what I saw.

"Oh...my...Arceus..." I muttered as I stared ahead at the obliterated landscape before me. Where the bolder had previously been was now a gigantic crater that stretched from the tree to the far end of the field. The crater had pretty much engulfed a third of the field, and was pretty deep as well.

"All of that from one attack?" I asked no one in particular as I stared on in disbelief.

Lisa had gotten up by this point and was just as confused as I was. "I don't know what just happened... But that was the most epic thing I've ever seen!" She exclaimed with a bright smile as she gazed on at the destruction.

I chuckled at her reaction and sighed. "Whelp. So much for this being a nice date spot. Oh well."

I heard Lisa snickering at the mentioning of the phrase 'date spot'. I just rolled my eyes. "Ok kid. I wish we had more time here, but I've got this mission that I really need to take care of. Want me to walk you home?"

At that, Lisa's eyes widened as she shook her head. "N-no! That's ok! You don't need to walk me home! Eheheh. Like you said. I'm strong. I mean, not nearly as strong as you are, but you know..." She replied as she seemed to force a smile.

I raised an eyebrow. "Really? You sure?"

Lisa nodded. "Yep! I've got it covered! No need to worry about me!" She replied, still sounding a bit unsure of herself. "Besides, I wanted to know if I could maybe go with you. On your mission I mean."

I looked at her and sighed. "Listen Lisa. I really don't think that I should..." I started, only to stop when her pleading look became unbearable. My expression turned warm as I smiled. "Alright, fine. You can come. Just be careful."

"Yes!" She exclaimed as she leapt into the air before embracing me in a tight hug. "Thanks Eve!"

I chuckled. "No problem kid."

* * *

**Auburn Town, Austin's POV:**

"Ok. Can someone tell me why this town always feels so... tense when you walk through it? Seriously, it's like everyone's watching us!" Riley complained as we slowly made our way through Auburn town.

I'll admit, he had a point. Something about this town just seemed off, but at the same time it looked pretty ordinary. It could've been the fact that most of the residents were vulpix and ninetales, but then again I'd caught wind of a village of all pikachu not too long ago. So much for that argument.

"Just ignore it. It's probably nothing." I replied, dismissing it as another Riley thing.

Riley sighed. "Fine, but when we get attacked by a mob of wild townsfolk, don't blame me." He retorted, crossing his arms. "Hold up, I think I found her."

I sighed. "Riley, we don't have time for any more of your games."

Ally tapped me on the shoulder. "Austin, I think you should give him a chance. He's a riolu. He can sense things with aura."

Something in my mind clicked at that thought. "Why didn't I think of that? Riley, where is she?"

He was silent for a moment before nodding and pointing off towards a collection of houses to our left. "She's right around the corner over there. There were two ninetales with her. I think she was talking to them? I'm not sure. It's hard to tell from this far away."

I nodded. "Good work. Let's hurry before she runs off." I replied as we hurried off in the direction he specified.

As it turns out, Riley was right. Once we turned the corner, I immediately spotted two ninetales talking to a vulpix who I immediately identified as Flare. Or at least I thought it was talking until I saw one of the ninetales slam Flare into the ground as hard as they could, causing her to let out a painful gasp.

I felt an instant rage ignite within myself as I rushed forward, put myself between Flare and her attacker, and blocked yet another attack with my paw. I sent a single glare at her attacker, causing them to back away before turning around and helping Flare up.

"Are you ok Flare?" I asked her as she got to her feet. She nodded just in time for me to block an attack from the second ninetales. I assumed he thought that he could catch me off guard, but at the moment protecting Flare was the only thing on my mind, and they were her assailants. I cast a chilling glare towards the ninetales. "Leave...her...alone!" I spoke with the harshest tone I could muster.

He looked as if he were going to attack again, but a quick growl from the other ninetales, who was clearly female, shut that down immediately as he backed off.

"Flare. Who are these two?" I asked her, making sure to keep an eye on them while doing so.

Flare looked at me sheepishly. Like she was afraid to do so. "They...they're my parents Austin..." She sighed, looking away.

With that answer, I clinched my fists and turned towards the two, anger burning in my eyes. "Your parents?! What kind of parents beat their children into the ground!"

Flare's mother just scoffed. "If by parents you were expecting the type that love and nurture their children regardless of fault, then I'm afraid you're sadly mistaken. We couldn't possibly tend to that kind of relationship with such a horrid monstrosity of which you blatantly stand before and expect us to leave be. Such a thing doesn't deserve love, or friends for the matter."

"What'd you say!?" I exclaimed angrily as I attempted to charge forward at her, only to be held back by Flare. "Flare! Let me go!"

"It's not worth it Austin! Please! Let's just go!" Flare pleaded, yet I just couldn't shake my mind off of what her mother had just said.

"Thing? Horrid?! Monstrosity?! Who are you to be calling Flare things like that?!" I yelled at them, my anger rising to dangerous levels.

She laughed. "Why I'm her mother of course. Simply put, we cannot allow a monster such as her to run around unchecked. You really know nothing about her do you? It's all in her eyes. Have you never seen them? Surely you know of what she did to this town with those horrid things?"

I shook my head as I attempted to leap at her again. "Shut up! You are no mother!" I shouted as the others finally joined in the effort of dragging me away. The ninetales didn't do anything to try and stop Flare. They just simply turned around and walked off as we left the neighborhood.

* * *

**Elsewhere in Auburn Town:**

Once we were out of that neighborhood, I had cooled down enough to walk on my own and together as a group we found a place to rest. Naturally, my mind was still stuck on what Flare's mother had said about her though.

Riley shook his head. "I knew something was up with this town. They were staring at us the whole way here."

Flare sighed. "You're half right Riley. They were only staring at you guys because I was with you. Please don't be mad at the townsfolk though. They're just...scared I guess..."

"Flare, why'd you come back here? I thought the whole purpose of running away back then was to get away from them." Drew asked her.

Flare shook her head. "I just...that wanted poster... It was a warning. That's the only thing I can imagine..."

"Wait a minute. Running away... Was that the reason why we found you in that dungeon all that time ago when we were a rescue team? You were running away from your parents?" Ally asked Flare.

Flare nodded. "We had been on the run for two months by then. I was actually kinda glad we found you guys. Drew was strong, but being blind back then, he wasn't exactly the best navigator and we were running out of supplies. You, Austin and Eve. You guys saved us... That's why I just couldn't face you when that stupid poster appeared."

I nodded. "Ok, now I've got to ask. What were your parents talking about. About it all being in your eyes?"

Flare looked down. "I don't really know. All I know about it is that I have this strange pattern that appears in my eyes whenever I'm angry or under massive stress. Sometimes it happens when I'm scared too...and weird things happen when it does appear."

I nodded. "What about what they said about the town?"

She shook her head. "A lie. I never did anything to the town. I'm assuming they meant the fire that burnt it to the ground years ago, since the charges on my wanted poster talk about arson, but that poster is a fake too."

"But why? I don't understand why your parents hate you so much." Ally asked her.

Flare sat down. "I don't know that either. When I was little, like four or five, my parents and I were really close. They used to do, well, the usual parent stuff. Nothing like what they do now. And they loved me... Then something changed. I don't remember exactly when, but they just started abusing me. And I... I'd rather not talk about that part."

I nodded and stood up. "I'm going for a walk."

"Alone?" Ally asked.

I nodded. "I'll be right back."

* * *

**Back in the neighborhood:**

It took a while, but after walking through the neighborhood we had come from not too long ago, I finally spotted Flare's parents standing in front of a house. They seemed to be having some sort of dispute, though it ended as soon as I approached.

Flare's mother frowned. "You're that kid from before. Finally decide to hear the whole story?"

I didn't react. "I want to know the truth. You were lying weren't you? Everything you said. You didn't really mean it. My question is why. I'm here because I'm Flare's friend. I want answers."

A moment of silence followed my words before she decided to speak up. "I was hoping she'd make a friend like you." She smiled. "That Drew kid was always an odd one, but he was never bold enough to dig for the truth. You want to know...fine." She replied with a sigh. "I'm assuming she told you that we abused her... Well, it's true. We did a lot of things that we're not proud off, but at the time... We believed it was necessary."

I raised an eyebrow. "Necessary?!"

She nodded. "You see, this entire town... They feared her. They feared her both because of her eyes and the strange powers that seemed to be behind them. Everyone seemed to consider them a bad omen. They all had reserved feelings towards Flare, and we were afraid that they'd try to hurt her or worse if we didn't do something, so... we planned to make Flare run away. If we had simply run away with her, the townsfolk would've hunted us down and the hatred towards our daughter would've only grown. And if we had just dropped her off somewhere, we feared that she would end up seeking us out in the future. We had to make her hate us, as horrible as it sounds."

"So then you framed her for the fire?" I asked her.

She nodded. "The wanted posters posted recently aren't original. They were posted around the time of the incident when suspicions were high and no suspects had been named. The picture may have been updated, but the poster itself is a fake. Flare didn't cause the fire. It did however prove quite affective at keeping her away from the town... The first time. We didn't expect her to come right for us after they resurfaced. Still, I question the credibility of the force. That case was closed years ago after that poor Mari girl was wrongfully charged for the same crime."

I sighed. "Well... Is there any way to prove that Flare's power isn't dangerous? If we can do that, then maybe the town won't-"

"We've tried. Trust us, but we don't have enough information to get us any leads. The only evidence we had back then was Flare's mumbling in her sleep. She used to say Uxie's name all the time when she slept. Almost every night, but there's not much we can do with that." She replied.

"Uxie?" I asked. "That's... Perfect! We just need to head back to Fogbound Lake!" I exclaimed.

"Wait. You can't expect us to believe that you actually know Uxie. The guardian of knowledge." The ninetales said confusedly.

I nodded. "Believe it or not, I do. No time to waste! Thanks for the talk!" I exclaimed as I ran off back in the direction of my team.


	16. A Town's Shame!

* * *

_"Bring forth the watcher, the neighbor, the light and the stranger. Let them bear the burden. May they find our sight."_

* * *

**2:00pm, Grace Family House, Eve's POV:**

Lisa was a lot more like me than I had originally thought. Not only did she love Sitrus berries (I mean, who couldn't), but she sped around so fast that we arrived back at the house in only five minutes. And that's with a stop at the market. To put it short, she wanted a bow and I just didn't have the heart to say no to her.

Interestingly enough upon returning home, we saw Lucario having a conversation with my parents. "Hey Lucario!" I exclaimed happily, making ourselves known as we approached.

He turned to me and smiled warmly like he always did. Nothing seemed to have changed about him since the last time I saw him (not that it ever did), but then again he was getting kinda old. Well... On second thought, I don't think I remember him wearing a fedora before... "Ahh. I was wondering when I would see you Eve! I have something I wanted to give you."

"Wait. You're here for me? What about Esuna? I'm sure she wants to talk to you." I asked him. I really didn't want to think he was avoiding her.

Lucario nodded. "I was hoping to see her too, but since you're here now I figured we could talk first."

That sparked my curiosity. "Ok, so what did you want to give me?"

I tilted my head in confusion as he removed the fedora from his head. "This hat is very important to me. It was given to me by... a very close friend of mine. Since then, I've worn it on every mission I've carried out... I made a promise to that friend. I told him I would show this old hat some adventure, and despite my best efforts I don't think I'll ever be able to fulfill that promise myself. I don't travel as much as I used to, but you. You're just starting out, and I see something in you that I haven't see in a long, long time..." He explained, seemingly pausing to cast a curious glance at Lisa.

He placed the fedora on my head, careful to avoid messing up my bow. "I trust you'll do this hat justice. Please take it with you everywhere."

"Really? Are you sure? I don't want to mess it up or anything." I asked him, a bit unsure of accepting the gift. Sure the hat was cool and all, but I wasn't exactly the most careful person in the world.

He nodded. "Wear and tear is all a part of adventure. Besides, I trust you to take care of it. You were always the sentimental one."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked him with a hint of suspicion.

He just laughed. "Nothing. Nothing. In any case, I'll let you talk to your parents. In the meantime, I suppose I'll wait for Esuna outside." He replied before exiting the house.

"Who's your little friend?" Mom asked from behind me as I watched him leave.

I shook my head, turning away from the door and to my parents. "Oh. Mom, Dad. This is Lisa."

"What do you mean little? I'm ten years old!" Said eevee fumed, seemingly annoyed.

Mom simply chuckled. "You sound so much like Eve when she was little."

Lisa frowned at that statement and let out a huff.

"Alright Mom. Leave her alone." I stepped in, coming to her defense as I ruffled the fur atop the young eevee's head. To no surprise, the gesture was pretty effective at cheering her up. "Lisa's my new training partner. We met out in the field just outside the town... Well, at least it used to be a field..."

Mom cast me an accusing glance. "What'd you do Eve?"

"Nothing! Just a little training exercise... And a super destructive sphere attack." I turned my head to the side, hoping she wouldn't catch that last part.

"You blew up the field?!" Mom exclaimed.

I raised my paws in defense. "Hey! In my defense. It was a pretty awesome attack. Hey. Mom. You're great with weird stuff. Maybe you can tell me what it was."

She just sighed. "Eve, my specialty is..." She took one glance at Lisa before sighing once again. "Oh for Pete's sake!" She exclaimed, taking a second to calm herself before speaking again. "My specialty is wizardry Eve. You're not a wizard, so there's not much I can help you with."

I was a bit surprised that she broke the law with so little hesitation, but then again we did it all the time. Lisa looked extremely confused. I didn't blame her. All this magic and wizard stuff makes no sense to me.

"Aww... Still. It was so awesome! I mean. I've never seen anything like it before. All the colors and the spinning energy ribbon thingies. And then it blew up the... Ya know what, never mind. Eheheh."

"Spinning energy ribbons?" Mom questioned.

I nodded. "Yeah. It was this rotating multicolored sphere, and there were these energy ribbon things rotating with it. Why?"

Mom looked thoughtful. "Huh. Doesn't sound like any attack I've ever heard of."

I slumped over. "Aww... Thanks for getting my hopes up Mom..."

"Sorry sweetie." She smiled apologetically. "So, why'd you bring Lisa here? Aren't her parents going to wonder where she is?"

I was about to speak when Lisa jumped in, effectively interrupting me. "Oh believe me! My parents are cool with it. You see, an eevee as awesome as me can obviously take care of herself, so they let me stay out as long as I want. They're super understanding."

I raised an eyebrow. "Uhh... Right... Anyway, Lisa's coming on our mission to the Northern Desert. I kinda promised I'd take her, so."

"Promised you'd take who?" I heard Alex ask as the front door shut behind us.

I smiled before turning around and rushing towards him, attempting to tackle him in a hug. "Think fast!"

Unfortunately, it it didn't work. He reacted quickly enough and caught me, maintaining his balance. "Heh. Sorry Eve. You can't always win." He smirked, hugging me back.

I frowned at him. "You're supposed to let me win." I pouted.

He chuckled. "But what fun would that be ya goofball?" He gave me a peck on the lips before releasing me.

I blushed. Man. Why'd he always have to be so smart? I heard Lisa snickering quietly to herself, which only contributed more to the redness adorning my cheeks. He did that on purpose...

"Well if you two are done flirting, we're all ready for the mission." Esuna spoke up from behind him.

I smirked. "You should talk. What were you and Luke doing during the break?"

She hesitated. "W-we were uhh...shopping."

I rolled my eyes. "Riiight. You plus my brother equals love sickness." I chuckled before leaning in close to whisper to her. "Keep him smiling will ya?" I turned to Lisa. "Anyway. Guys, this is Lisa. She's gonna be joining us on our mission today."

Alex looked a bit unsure about this plan. "Eve... Are you sure about this? She's a bit..."

"She's young. I know. But I promised she could come. Plus, she's really awesome! You should see her shadow ball!" I explained.

Lisa jumped with excitement. "Yeah! Eve taught me how to throw it with my paw! It was so awesome!"

Alex smiled. "Ok. I'm on board. It's about time we head out anyway. How about it guys?" He asked, turning to Luke and Esuna for approval. They both nodded as he took out his map. "Alright then. So this is where we're going."

* * *

**Northern Desert:**

"Woah! This is so cool!" Lisa beamed, practically jumping with excitement as we arrived at the Northern Desert.

I chuckled, patting her on the head. "I know right? Just don't get too excited and run off. Ok kid?" I smiled, knowing that's exactly what I'd do if I were her.

She nodded. "Ok. Why are we here anyway? Ooh! Is it to find some awesome treasure?!"

"Actually Lisa, we're trying to find something called a time gear. We need to prevent it from being stolen." Alex answered.

She tilted her head in confusion. "Time gear? Aren't those the things that make time go?"

I nodded. "Yep, and someone's stealing them. If we can find the time gear that's supposed to be here, we can stop them."

"Hero stuff?! That's so awesome!" She smiled excitedly.

I smiled, lowering my head and bringing it up underneath the young eevee before lifting her up onto my back. "That it is."

"Hey. Why'd you pick me up?" Lisa asked, sounding a bit impatient.

"I'm not sure how strong this Grovyle guy is. He was able to beat Uxie and steal a time gear." I looked back at her. "I said you could come with me on this mission, but I don't want you to get hurt because of me." I explained.

She frowned. "Aww come on! I can take care of myself!"

I chuckled. "I know you can kid, but we haven't trained enough yet. If you got into some trouble with that Grovyle guy, something bad could happen."

Oddly enough, she immediately perked up. "Wait. You mean you really want to train with me again?!"

That made me smile. "Of course. Why wouldn't I? I haven't had that much fun training in I don't know how long."

Those words earned me what was perhaps the biggest smile I had ever seen as the young eevee hugged me around the neck. "Thank you so much Eve!"

I nodded, facing ahead again. "So no complaining ok?"

She sighed. "Alright, fine..."

Smiling to myself, I turned to the others to make sure they were ready. Once they were, we entered the dungeon.

Unsurprisingly, the dungeon was pretty barren. All there was to the ground was sand. Just sand. Well, rocks littered the place here and there, but there wasn't much else other than the occasional rock pillar. I just hoped the wind didn't pick up. The last thing I needed was a sandstorm to give me a sand bath.

"This sand isn't as nice as the beach sand. It's hot too." Luke complained, shaking his forepaw to emphasize his point.

Taking a chance, I smirked and approached him. "The beach huh? Since when do you visit that place? Mom told me you hate getting sand on your paws."

His eyes widened in surprise. "Oh! Well I uhh. Just a hunch?"

"Mhmm. Is that hunch called Esuna?" I teased.

He blushed. "I uhh, well... maybe we had a tiny date there..."

Esuna shook her head. "Eve. I know he's your little brother, but could you please stop making fun of my boyfriend?"

I laughed. "Fine. Fine." I replied, backing off and returning to Alex.

"Are you sure her parents are ok with this?" Alex asked in a whisper, making sure Lisa couldn't hear. Not that it would matter anyway. The kid was too busy gawking at all the scenery to notice.

"Hmm? What do you mean? She said they were ok with it." I replied.

He looked unsure. "I don't know Eve. Kids say things like that all the time. How can you be sure unless you've met them? For all we know, they could be worried sick by now."

Alex's words were starting to worry me. I mean, I didn't want Lisa's parents to hate me. If they really weren't ok with Lisa staying out this late and exploring with me, it'd be my fault. "Well...why would she lie? I don't get it."

Alex shook his head. "Eve, I think Lisa views you as something more than just a training partner. She looks up to you. To her, it'd be pretty embarrassing if she had to ask her parents for permission in front of her role model."

I thought for a second, reaching up and setting my paw on the hat Lucario had given me not too long before we left. "I guess that makes sense... Maybe I should ask her if I can meet them."

Alex nodded. "I'd do it fast. You don't want to get on her parents' bad side."

"Whatcha guys talking about?" Lisa inquired, interrupting our conversation.

"Huh?! Oh nothing. Just couple stuff." I covered, knowing the topic would dissuade her from asking any more questions.

She snickered. "Ok love birds."

I mentally laughed. "Enjoying the view huh?"

"Yeah! This place looks kinda plain, but being in a dungeon is really cool! She explained, excitement clear in her voice.

I smiled. "Glad you're enjoying it kid."

* * *

**Quicksand Pit:**

After about a half hour of exploring, we entered a small area populated by several large pits of quicksand.

"That...is a lot of quicksand." Esuna said as we approached the pits, careful as to not fall into them.

"Wait." Luke took a moment to scan the area. "Well this is pretty disappointing. There's nothing here."

While Luke was complaining, I took a closer look at the quicksand. It just looked... off. As if the sand were being sucked underground.

I turned to Alex. "Hey uhh Alex? Is quicksand supposed to move on its own?"

He paused, taking a moment to study the sand himself. "Well no. Normally it'd be flat until something heavy enough landed on top of it. Then it'd collapse into something like that. That's dry quicksand at least." He said, gesturing towards the pit. "Though I don't think it should last this long... Maybe it works differently in your world?"

I shook my head. "Watch Lisa." I instructed him, letting Lisa off of my back.

"What're you gonna do?" He asked, sounding confused.

I smiled. "Something risky." I replied, stepping onto the moving sand before running towards the center and diving into... pretty much nothing. I flew through a small layer of sand and into a small chamber full of more sand, crashing face-first into a pile of... Ok, let's just say there was a lot of sand.

I sat up, spitting out sand as I did so, and scanned the small chamber. All would've been fine if the sand from the pit above didn't dump onto me like a grainy shower.

"Ugh!" I shouted angrily, moving out of the way so my fur wouldn't get any dirtier. I began shaking it out just as I heard my friends' worried voices calling my name from above.

"Hey Eve! You ok?!" Alex shouted, sounding the most worried out of the... Oh wait, never mind. Lisa was shouting more.

"Yeah I'm fine! There's a room down here! Just jump in!" I shouted back up at them.

Not even a second after I said that, Lisa had already joined me. I glanced over at her and laughed. "Guess even Alex can't keep up with you." I joked as we shared a laugh.

* * *

**Fogbound Lake, Austin's POV:**

"I wish we had known about this teleportation spell the last time we came here. That was way easier." Ally said as she closed the portal we had used to instantly travel from Auburn town to Fogbound Lake.

"Man. I still don't get why they call it a teleportation spell. Portal spell sounds much more accurate." I complained. I'll admit, I had gotten a bit obsessed with spells after reading nearly every spell book in Ella's library.

Ally rolled her eyes. "Portal spells are completely different dummy. They can send you to different worlds." She explained, smiling at me cutely.

I perked up a bit. "Wait! You found a portal spell book!"

Ally nodded. "Found it before you started raiding the bookshelves." She laughed.

I sighed. "Man. I knew I was missing something."

"Hey guys. Sorry to interrupt, but I'm really starting to get anxious about talking to Uxie. Could we move a bit faster?" Flare asked me, sounding extremely nervous.

I suddenly felt guilty. "Sorry Flare. Let's get going." I apologized as we rushed to the lake's shore.

Luckily, Uxie was out by the lake when we arrived, so we didn't have to waste time fighting some sort of security system illusion.

"Hello again Team Eviolite." Uxie greeted without turning around. "What brings you here?" He asked, sounding slightly depressed. I didn't blame him. The lake just didn't have the same shine to it without the time gear. In fact, it didn't seem to shine or move at all.

"Hello again Uxie. We came to ask you about something we think only you can help us with. It's about our friend Flare." I replied.

Uxie turned to face us, seemingly interested in what we had to say. "Only I can help you? What might I ask would that be?"

I turned to Flare. "Go ahead."

With that, Flare approached Uxie and revealed the strange pattern in her eyes. "Does this mean anything to you?" She asked him, a tinge of hope floating around in her tone.

Uxie was silent for a moment, before he opened his eyes, staring directly at Flare. "...Interesting. I never thought I'd see that in your generation."

Normally I would've questioned that, but we were all too busy gawking at the fact that Uxie had actually opened his eyes.

He soon closed them again. "Do not be alarmed. Taking memories is not as simple as opening my eyes."

Flare's eyes reverted to normal. "How do you know about my powers? And what'd you mean about my generation?"

Uxie nodded. "I know about your power because it's similar to mine."

Needless to say, that was a bit surprising. "Similar to yours? How's that possible? I don't remember taking anyone's memories."

He shook his head. "Not take. Record. The purpose of those eyes of yours is to record history. This world's historian if you will. I have been bothered by the absence of this ability for some time now, so seeing it in you now is quite a relief."

Flare looked more than confused at this point. "Recording history? That seems rather tame compared to what I've been doing the whole time? I've always thought I was a psychic, and not a gentle one either. I've had violent outbursts."

Uxie paused. "Well it's never happened before, but it seems that you lack the experience of those who came before you. You see, usually those with your ability are able to access the knowledge and experience of its previous owners." He explained. "...I didn't sense anything wrong with your memory, so my guess is whatever is preventing it is only temporary. Regardless, you are also a psychic Flare. A powerful one at that. Not much is known about the origin of your ability however, so I'm afraid I cannot give you much of a detailed explanation."

I smiled. "That's ok Uxie. You gave us all the information we needed."

"If you don't mind my asking, what made you come to me about this?" Uxie inquired.

Flare sighed. "Well let's just say my town has given me quite a hard time because of my powers."

Uxie seemed to understand. "I see... Well I hope the information I've given you will help."

I smiled. "Don't worry Uxie. It will. I'm sure of it!"

**Underground Lake:**

"Ugh. Why did there have to be so many sand storms?" I whined as I desperately tried to rid my fur of sand that had clung to it after enduring countless sandstorms in the previous dungeon. Miraculously, Lisa had managed to avoid this problem. Lucky...

"Relax Eve. It's just sand. You can get it out later. Right now we need to focus on the mission." Alex insisted.

I just rolled my eyes. "Says the guy without fur."

The level headed snivy looked down at himself for a moment. "You uhh... You've got a point." He chuckled.

"You bet I do." I smirked before leaping onto a nearby rock. "Now. Where's that lake?"

"Looking for the lake are you?" A voice sounded from below me. I looked down to see a grovyle laying against the rock I was standing on.

"Hmm? Oh! Yeah! We are!" I smiled down at the stranger. "Do you..." I paused. "Wait a minute. You're that Grovyle guy!"

Grovyle sighed. "Now's not the time for sight seeing I'm afraid. You should leave."

I frowned. "No way! You're under arrest!"

Sighing once again, Grovyle stood up. "Honestly. I wish you locals would stop getting in the way." Leaping up, he made a quick slash at me with his leaf blade.

Acting fast, I flipped backwards off the rock, landing back with the others.

Alex looked to me worriedly. "Eve. Are you ok? What was with the shouting?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." I replied before peaking around the side of the rock, only to see Grovyle running off in the direction of what I assumed was the lake.

I turned to face the group. "You guys wait here! I'm going after him!" I instructed before dashing off after him.

"What? After who?! Wait!" I heard Alex shout after me, but I was too focused to listen.

Upon arriving at the lake, I noticed two figures at the shore. One of them was Grovyle. The other, who was laying down at Grovyle's side, looked a bit like Uxie, but her head was pink instead of yellow.

"Hey! Get away from the lake!" I shouted at him, only for him to run straight towards the lake and dive into it.

I was about to chase after him, but someone grabbed my leg and stopped me.

"No! Don't chase after him!" I looked down as I heard a cough. The pink Uxie looked at me with pleading eyes. "We have to get out of here! Once he takes the time gear, anything left here will be frozen in time!"

Just as she said that, the whole cavern shook as if there were an earthquake. I decided to take her word for it and quickly hoisted her onto my back. Looking back, I saw what looked to be electrical currents crawling all along the walls and the ceiling of the cavern that seemed to suck the color out of everything as they went by. I wasn't sticking around to find out what that would do to me, so we fled the scene.

In seconds we were back with the others, who looked pretty shocked themselves.

"Eve! What did you do?!" Alex asked me while trying to hold onto Lisa, who seemed to have been freaked out by the shaking of the cavern.

"Me?! I didn't do anything! It was that Grovyle guy!" I shook my head. "Look. Can you just teleport us out of here?!"

Alex nodded and started fiddling with his badge. There was a bright flash as everything went white before we found ourselves at the gates to the guild.

* * *

**Wigglytuff's Guild:**

I looked around, half expecting a massive wave of dizziness to hit me. When nothing happened, I smiled. "Huh. Well at least you fixed that problem."

Alex nodded, taking a moment to stand up and dust himself off. "I really couldn't take another one of those episodes. The visions are disorienting enough."

"Everyone else ok?" I asked the others.

Luke shrugged. "Besides confused, I'm good."

Esuna nodded. "What exactly happened? You just ran off and the whole place started shaking."

Lisa leapt onto my back and examined the pink Uxie, who was now unconscious.

I sighed. "I'll explain everything later. Let's just go talk to the guildmaster."

That being said, we all headed down to Wigglytuff's chamber to give him the news.

* * *

**8:00pm, Wigglytuff's Chamber:**

"You let him get away?!" Chatot exclaimed once I explained the situation.

I sighed. "Well he beat up Mesprit. I wasn't just gonna leave her there." Mesprit had woken up just before chimecho started treating her, so we at least got to learn her name. She didn't seem too fond of being called Pink Uxie.

Chatot nodded. "I see... This makes things a bit more dire so it seems." He replied.

I was about to question him on that when Austin and the rest of our team entered the room. "Eve! There you are!" He sighed, looking slightly exhausted.

I frowned. "Uhh Austin? You ok there? You look kinda...tired."

He shook his head. "You try making the journey to and from Fogbound Lake in less than a day. It's not easy."

I shrugged. "Well you're here now..." Looking around Austin, I saw Flare standing off to the side looking a bit nervous.

"Flare!" Smiling widely, I tackled her to the floor and gave her a huge hug. "You're back!" Then, pulling away from her, I gave her a judgmental glare. "Don't you ever do that again!"

Flare laughed, paws up in a defensive position. "Ok Eve. Ok. I won't. Can you get off of me now?"

I smiled. "Ok!" I let her get up before turning back to Austin. "So, why were you in such a hurry? Something interesting happen?"

Austin nodded. "Well, sorta. I need you to come with me and Flare back to Auburn Town. There's something that needs to be explained to the citizens, and we need you to do it."

"Hmm? Why me?" I inquired.

"Because you're the leader." Flare answered.

Austin nodded. "That and you're the most stubborn one among us."

That last comment was enough to raise an eyebrow at. "What was that?"

Austin held up his arms in defense. "Nothing! Nothing!"

I rolled my eyes. "Suuuure." I then turned towards Lisa, who was still admiring the guild's interior. "Well kid, looks like I've gotta go back with Austin to take care of some things. You should go home to your parents. They're probably worried by now."

Lisa suddenly flipped around, her eyes wide with shock. "W-what?! B-but...but you said I could come with you on your mission!"

I shook my head. "Mission's up buddy. Besides, it's getting really late and your parents don't know me. I shouldn't take you to another town without meeting them first."

Lisa looked at me pleadingly. "Eve please. Just a little longer?" Her voice sounded almost...desperate?

I looked around at the others, who seemed to have distracted themselves with some conversation about eyes or whatever. That's what I caught at least. I thought back to the conversation Alex and I had at the desert and sighed. Just what was going on with this girl.

"Hey Lisa...how about we head outside and talk this out?" I suggested. The small eevee looked to me confused for a moment before nodding in agreement.

I led her out of Wigglytuff's room, up the ladders and to the entrance of the guild, where we then sat on a wooden bench.

"So Lisa...what's the deal? Why don't you want to go home? I mean, I get that you like hanging out with me and all, but we can always do it again after I meet your folks." I reasoned.

After a small period of silence, she shook her head. "You can't."

I frowned. "Hmm? What do ya mean?"

She sighed. "You can't meet them..." She elaborated.

"What? Why can't I-?"

"You just can't, ok?!" She exclaimed, tears forming in her eyes as she looked away from me.

"Lisa, I..." It wasn't until then that I noticed how filthy she looked. It wasn't mud or dirt filthy, like something you'd get from training or exploring all day, but rather something you'd get if you forgot to bathe and brush your fur for a month.

I placed my paw to my mouth, my own eyes beginning to well with tears. "Lisa..." I started, setting my other paw over hers. "Why didn't you tell me?"

She shook her head, looking downward. Tears now soaked the dirt path as they fell from her now damp face. "I...I d-didn't think you'd care... I-it's not your problem... and if you knew I was an orphan, you'd think of me different..."

I sighed, pulling her into a hug. "Not my problem? How could you think that? It's my job as part of this guild to help people. And of course I'd think of you differently because of that, but only because I want to help you." I pulled away, smiling at her.

She sniffled. "How're you gonna do that?"

I chuckled, wiping away her tears. "You can come live with me! My parents won't mind."

She visibly tensed. "Live with you?"

I nodded. "Yeah! You can stay with me and Alex in our room." I replied, before wincing at the smell of the kid's fur. "Ugh... But not before taking a bath."

At that, she laughed. "So...can I go with you to Auburn Town?" She asked, looking at me with pleading eyes.

I sighed. "Alright, fine. But you're getting that bath when we get back. Now come on before Austin loses his head trying to find us." I joked.

Lisa laughed as we hopped off the bench and entered the Guild.

* * *

**15 Minutes Later:**

After a bit of explanation and packing, Austin, Flare, Lisa and I met up at the crossroads before making the journey back to Auburn Town. Austin told me how bad the town treated Flare, and it didn't seem like this would be easy. He also said something about eye powers, historians and Uxie, but the whole thing kinda confused me.

Once we arrived, there was some sort of gathering around the square. Austin said something about explaining something to the town, so I figured it had something to do with that.

Looking towards the front of the crowd, I saw two important looking Ninetales standing on top of some sort of stage. "Well guys, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" I shouted as I ran ahead of the group, heading straight for the stage. The townsfolk sounded a bit confused when I ran by, but I just shrugged it off and kept running until I reached the stage. Once I got there, the two ninetales eyed me curiously.

One of them approached me. "Excuse me dear. Are you lost? This is a public meeting."

"Huh? Oh!" I shook my head. "No. I'm one of Flare's friends."

Once I said that, the townsfolk began shouting. I couldn't make out what they were saying however due to how much noise the crowd was making.

The ninetales raised their paw in an attempt to silence them, and oddly it worked. She then turned back to me. "A friend hmm? Do you have something to say?"

"I do." Austin said, arriving just in time to join in on the conversation. "This is Eve. I brought her to help."

I looked between the ninetales and Flare. "Oh! So you you're Flare's mother?"

She nodded. "Just call me Stella."

I nodded. "Well Austin, I think the crowd is waiting for us."

He nodded and we all walked onto the stage. Once they saw Flare, the entire audience went into an uproar of angry shouts and things that I can't even repeat. I told Lisa to cover her ears as I grit my teeth and tried to ignore it. Luckily, Flare's parents were able to calm the crowd so Austin could speak. The rest of us just sat back and watched.

Stella stepped up to the front of the stage with him. "Citizens of Auburn Town! We have here today a few visitors from our neighboring town, Treasure Town. They've come to shed some light on an issue that I'm sure we're all aware of." She sighed, looking back at Flare. "My daughter, Flare... I'm afraid I can no longer ask any of you to believe my words. Not when I've done you so much wrong by them... But I beg of you! Please listen to these visitors! Take their words for what you will, but please know that they only mean the best for our town." With that, she stepped back and left the stage to Austin.

Austin looked back at us for a moment before addressing the crowd. "People of Auburn Town! I am Austin of Team Eviolite, and I have come to you about something urgent. Everything you know about Flare is a complete and utter lie!"

I half expected the crowd to explode into an uproar, but they stayed silent. Probably out of respect for Stella, though I could tell the tension was high.

"Yes she has powers, but they're not what you think. Flare's innocent, and I have proof. Just recently my team paid a visit to a friend of ours named Uxie and we told him of Flare's eyes. Uxie confirmed that Flare's eyes have the ability to record history and make her a powerful psychic, but for some reason she isn't able to access that history, so she has little experience with these powers." Austin placed a fist over his chest. "I know Flare, and she is not violent, however she once told me that she has psychic outbursts if she's angry or put under too much stress. Can't you see? You're not helping by shunning her or shouting hateful things at her. You're only going to make things worse. For everyone!" He sighed. "Flare?"

Flare nodded and walked up beside him to stare out across the crowd. I could practically feel the tension in the air.

Austin motioned to Flare. "Flare. Go ahead."

Once he said that, Flare revealed her weird eye pattern thingy to the crowd. The entire crowd gasped as they stared at her, citizens whispering things to each other in the process.

"I knew it! She is a monster!" Shouted someone from the crowd.

Austin looked surprised. "What?! No! That's not-"

"He's right! That's not natural! She has to be dangerous!" Shouted someone else. Soon the entire crowd exploded into an uproar yet again, this one twice as bad as the first.

I looked to Lisa. "Lisa, cover your ears again." I instructed before making my way towards the front of the stage. Austin was desperately trying to get the crowd's attention, but to no avail.

I had reached my limit, and once I reached the edge of the stage, I pulled my paw back, slamming it straight down into the painted concrete. With a loud crack, the section of the stage I was standing on gained a giant crater. "Will all of you just stop?!" I shouted, my voice seemingly echoing out across the now silent town. Needless to say, no one in the crowd wanted to interrupt me.

Taking a moment to gather myself, I walked to the center of the stage and took Austin's place. "What is the matter with all of you?! Can't you see how ridiculous you're all being?! Flare is a member of your town and more importantly a pokémon! Who cares if she has some stupid power or not?! That doesn't give you the right to call her a monster! And sure! Yeah, she's dangerous, but by all means we all are! We can all use attacks to hurt one another! How can you fault her for something that is a part of everyone?!" I sighed. "My friends told me how Flare's parents saved her from this town when she was little. They had to abuse her! They had to abuse her until she ran away! They framed her for the town burning down, and then had the police put out all of these fake wanted posters saying she was a wanted fugitive! All because you people couldn't spare the time to get to know her better." I paused, letting what I had said sink in. There were no words from the crowd. Just silence and the occasional nervous shuffling of feet.

"I've always believed that getting to know someone is the best way to make peace with them, because if you understand someone completely, you have a better chance of getting along with them." I looked towards Flare and smiled. "There's no monster here."

Looking back at the crowd, I noticed they were all staring at Flare again. They weren't angry anymore though. In fact, all the tension from before seemed to have vanished. After a bit, everyone in the crowd lowered their heads down in what I could only assume was shame.

I gave Flare a hug before walking back to my spot. Stella nodded a thank you in my direction before addressing the crowd. "I think we could all learn a lesson or two from that young eevee." She said, looking towards the ruined part of the stage. "Well...maybe not that part..."

I laughed sheepishly at that comment. What? I had to get their attention somehow.

"I urge you all to take her advice and everything that was said here by this group wisely and use it to better yourselves in the future. This concludes our town meeting."

* * *

**Grace Family House:**

By the time we arrived home, it was almost midnight and Lisa had fallen asleep on my back. We all sleepily entered the house and were about to head off to our respective rooms when I noticed an odd piece of paper sitting on the living room table.

"Hey guys. Anybody notice this before?" I asked them as I approached the table.

With that, everybody gathered around the table as I picked up the piece of paper. It was an envelope. Someone had written a message on the front of it where the address was supposed to go.

**"To my new enemies. -Connor."**


	17. The Note and the Thief!

* * *

_"What better than emotions to bring about chaos. Disrupting the comfort of peace."_

* * *

**Grace Family House:**

"To my new enemies? What's that supposed to mean?" Austin asked, stating what we were all thinking.

Flare shook her head. "Why would Connor write something like that?"

I was too busy staring at the envelope to pay attention to them. I should've been equally as confused as the others, but... Why did this make me so angry? If anything, I should've been worried, but those words. It didn't make sense.

"Guess the only way to find out is to read it." Austin replied, reaching out for the envelope.

Without looking at him, I slapped my paw down over it to prevent him from doing so. "No."

"What?" Austin questioned, seemingly confused by the sudden action.

I looked up at him, a serious expression on my face. "We're not reading it."

He and Flare looked at me perplexed. "Why not? Don't you want to know what he's up to?" Flare asked.

I shook my head. "Of course I do, but not from some dumb letter. If Connor has something to say, he needs to tell me in person. I won't accept it otherwise."

"But he's probably already long gone. I don't thing right now is the right time to be stubborn." Austin criticized.

I frowned. "That's why we're going to find him. I want to ask him myself. This isn't the only thing I'm concerned about. He's been acting really weird lately. Besides." I looked back at Lisa, who was still quietly sleeping on my back. "I don't wanna get Lisa involved in something like this. If she finds out, she'll want to help."

The others seemed to understand. "I guess that makes sense..." Austin sighed.

I placed the envelope in my bag. "We need to make sure my mom doesn't find out about this. If she does, it might distract her from trying to find your dad."

"My dad... I wonder if they've found anything yet..." Austin pondered for a moment.

I sighed. "Welp! That's enough serious talk for tonight! Better head off to bed before this one wakes up." I smiled before walking off in the direction of my room. "See ya tomorrow guys."

Alex was already fast asleep by the time I entered my room, so I just settled down with Lisa on the unused bed. Making sure she was comfortable, I pulled the blanket over both of us before laying my head on my pillow.

I let out a sigh of relief. Today had been pretty stressful. Something about a time thief getting away and having to scold practically an entire town just sucked the fun out of the day.

Looking over at Lisa, I smiled at how peaceful she looked in her sleep. "I guess today wasn't all that bad..." I muttered to myself as I watched her sleep. Why can't the world be as peaceful as the way some people look when they sleep?

I gave her a gentle pat on the head before closing my eyes. "Night Lisa." With that, I let myself drift off to the warm embrace of sleep.

* * *

**Midnight:**

It was sometime around midnight when I woke up to the sound of a loud crackling boom. I shot up and looked around frantically, heart racing, before realizing it was just thunder.

With a sigh of relief, I resisted the urge to give in to my fear of thunderstorms and calmed myself down. "So much for sleep..."

Suddenly I heard quiet whimpering off to my side. Upon investigation, I found the source of the whimpering to be Lisa, who was shaking as if she were enduring a blizzard.

"Lisa?" I asked, checking to see if she was awake. When she didn't respond, I gently shook her shoulder.

The small eevee woke with a shout, her eyes wet with tears. In that moment, any ounce of fear left in my body was replaced with concern.

"Hey. You ok kid?" I asked her, placing my paw on her shoulder.

She turned to me, still shaking pretty badly. "H-huh?! E-Eve?" She stuttered, sounding scared.

Nodding, I scooted closer to her and embraced her in a comforting hug. "Shh..." I whispered to her, rubbing her back to help calm her down.

"T-thanks Eve..." Lisa sighed, sticking as close to me as possible. "I think I'm ok now..." She said as she laid down.

I laid down as well, maintaining the embrace. "Nightmare?"

She nodded. "I...don't wanna talk about it..."

"Alright. Just get some sleep then." I smiled, ruffling the fur atop her head.

She couldn't help but laugh. "Why do you keep doing that?"

"Cause it's fun. Duh." I chuckled. "Seriously though, you should get some sleep. Staying up all night may seem awesome, but trust me. You feel terrible afterwards."

She smirked. "Only if you train me tomorrow."

I sighed. "Fine. Ya little sneak."

* * *

**The Next Day, Living Room, Ally's POV:**

It seemed as though everything with Flare went well, seeing as she was no longer nervous. Still, there seemed to be some kind of tension in the air. Had something else happened? Come to think of it, I haven't seen Connor lately.

"Austin? Have you seen Connor? He's been awfully quiet lately." I asked him, giving him a gentle nudge to get his attention. Oddly, Eve seemed frustrated by my question.

Austin sighed. "I'd keep talk about Connor to a minimum. He and Eve aren't exactly on good terms right now."

That was a surprise. Eve was never one to stay mad at someone for long. Even if you did something she really didn't like. "Really? What happened?"

Austin shook his head. "Eve asked me not to share the details, but Connor ran off and didn't explain himself."

I nodded. That explained it. Eve hates disloyalty. Connor was her best friend. She must be confused. "But what are we gonna do? We can't just let him go can we?"

"Eve said she wanted to confront him herself." He leaned closer to me and whispered in my ear. "Also, Eve's been showing off some scary strength. I don't think I wanna get in her way." He shuddered.

I nodded nervously. "You're telling me. What kind of training is she doing?" I asked while inspecting her. I was pretty sure she wasn't like that during the tournament. Come to think of it, Eve had changed a lot since arriving in Treasure Town. I found it...refreshing.

"Hey Austin. Does Eve seem...different to you?" I asked him, wondering if he noticed it too.

He frowned. "Hmm? What do you mean?"

"Well... You remember how she was back in Pokemon Square. This isn't the same Eve." I replied.

He looked back at her. "She's certainly more outgoing and weird. Took my spot as leader. I liked being the leader." He fake pouted. "What do you think happened?"

I shook my head. "Nothing. Nothing's changed for her. I guess you could say it was finding our parents, or Alex. But..."

Austin seemed confused. "Really? I thought for sure Alex was helping her open up."

"You would think that. You're not her twin sister." I smiled. "I've seen it all." My smile soon faded as I lowered my head. "Some days were better than others."

* * *

***Flashback***

"Why do they always ignore us?! Don't they know what happened to our parents?! What'd we do wrong?!" Eve exclaimed.

"Eve, please. Calm down. That's not gonna help us." I attempted to calm her. Not that I blamed her. The townsfolk had been ignoring us ever since our parents disappeared.

"Those people. Why can't they tell we're not invisible?" She asked as she began to cry.

I sighed. "I don't know, Eve... Maybe they just don't understand."

"I don't want to stay like this forever." She continued between quiet sobs. "I just..." She stopped, taking a deep breath to calm herself down. "I don't want to keep hiding out all day in the forest waiting for something to happen. Or hoping that someone will just decide to notice us."

I stared at my sister, a bit surprised. Usually it took forever for her to calm down.

She wiped her tears. "I don't wanna cry anymore. If they won't notice us, then we'll make them pay attention!"

I frowned. "Make them? But how?"

She smiled. "By becoming awesome heroes of course! What do ya think?"

I just stared at her. "And exactly how do we do that?"

She paused. "It doesn't matter how. We're just gonna do it!"

"Sounds like a flawed plan to me." I replied with a yawn.

"Hey!"

* * *

***End of flashback***

I shook my head. "Thinking back, I still regret not helping her." I looked at her again. "She really knows what it means to work for something. I guess she's more mature than I thought."

Suddenly, Drew and Flare walked into the room. Flare's face had been drawn on with black marker, and Drew was completely covered with flour. They both turned to face Eve just in time for her to start laughing hysterically.

I sighed. "So much for mature..."

* * *

**Eve's POV:**

"Eve! It's not funny!" Flare complained as I laughed.

"Heh." I smirked, sitting up. "Sorry. Lisa and I got bored last night."

Flare sighed. "Well I don't see how marking up my face is fun. And pouring flour on Drew is..." She was about to finish, but one turn to look at the flour covered quilava was enough to make her giggle. "Ok. I guess I get that one."

"Really? Whose side are you on?" Drew asked her.

She shrugged. "Sorry. You just look really weird like that." She chuckled.

Drew shook his head. "Just be glad you're not the one with eye problems. All I saw in the mirror was a white blob."

"You really need glasses..." Flare stated disapprovingly.

Suddenly, a loud crashing sound rung out from the house library and we all jumped. Not too long afterwards, Mom, Evelyn and Emma emerged from the doorway. Some sort of smoke was seeping out of the door as they closed it.

"Ugh. Man, I didn't think tracking spells could explode. Sure you're not losing your touch Ella?" Emma complained, coughing half way through.

Mom seemed annoyed by that comment. "I can assure you I am not losing my touch. That spell's been sitting back there for a long time. It was covered in dust."

"Sounds like an excuse to me." Emma smirked.

"Rrgh!" Mom glared at Emma. I found it kind of funny. I had never seen my mom like that before. Meanwhile, Evelyn hadn't said a thing. I guess she didn't want to get involved in their uhh...rivalry?

A quick glance at Austin told me he was just as amused as I was. "Relax Ella. I'm kidding. Everyone knows you've always been the nerdy one."

Mom rolled her eyes. "Anyway, it seems we have an audience."

"Hmm?" Emma turned, finally noticing us. "Oh. Well then." She made her way over to Austin. "Looks like finding your old man's gonna be harder than we thought." She sighed.

Austin frowned. "You're calling Dad an old man?"

She looked at him unblinking. "It's just an expression..." She sighed. "Man. That memory wipe must've took a lot out of you."

I looked over at Mom. "A nerd huh?" I smirked.

"Oh don't you start." She nearly scolded.

"Heh. Sorry." I snickered.

She seemed to observe the room for a bit. "By the way. Eve. Where's Connor been? He wasn't in his room last night when I went to check on him. Is everything alright?"

"Umm." I didn't know what to say. Mom could be a bit, well, overprotective. She might cause a scene. "He's uhh... Well, you see. The thing is..."

She looked at me suspiciously. "What did you do Eve?"

"Me?! Why do you always think I did something?" I sighed.

"Eve honey. When you were little, you tried to blame your sister for pranking the entirety of Pokemon Square." She replied.

"Wha... That proves nothing!" I shook my head. "Besides, it's not my fault that Connor decided to run away." Now I'll admit, I wasn't thinking when I said that last part...at all...

The entire room went silent and Mom froze. She looked scared. "Mom? You ok?" I asked in an attempt to get a response.

"Where did he go?" She asked me in a frightened tone.

I sighed. "I don't know." I replied. "But I want to find out! That's why I'm gonna find him. Don't worry about it Mom!" I continued quickly. I hadn't seen her like this either, and I didn't like it. Something about how scared she looked was just...unnerving.

"What? Eve...sweetie. Are you sure?" She asked me, sounding unsure.

I nodded. "I want to find him. Something doesn't add up. I want to ask him why he left."

"But that's..." She shook her head. "Alright... If you're sure." She smiled slightly, patting my head.

"I dunno Eve. Your mother's getting preeety rusty with her magic. A little drama might actually do her some good." Emma joked.

And just like that, Mom went back to being annoyed. "I told you already. They are not rusty!"

I snuck over to the others to avoid getting involved. Luckily, they decided to take it back into the library, so we got the living room back.

"Heh. Man Austin. Your mom is awesome." I chuckled. "I didn't think there was anyone who could annoy my mom like that."

Austin shrugged. "I'm still surprised she's even here to be honest..."

I was about to reply, only to be interrupted by a knock on the door. I sighed. "What now?" I asked as I answered the door. To my surprise, it was Mari, Flint and Thomas. "Mari? What're you guys doing here?"

Mari looked slightly nervous. "Well, I heard about what happened in Auburn Town. It's had me a bit on edge..."

Flint, seeing my confusion, decided to elaborate. "She thinks someone's after her. I don't know what it's about, but she doesn't feel safe at my house or the guild. Think you could spare a room?"

"Oh uhh, yeah. Come in." I stepped aside to let the three in before shutting the door.

Mari made her way over to a couch and sat down. Flint followed while Thomas just stood in a corner.

While the others were busy with Mari and Flint, I decided to approach Thomas. "Hey Thomas. Your mom's in the library. Or I guess she's your mom. I don't exactly know how that works..."

His ears perked up at that news. "Wait. Emma's here?! When did that happen?!"

I shrugged. "She arrived not too long ago. Saved us from your dad."

He seemed much more lively now. "That's good." He smiled. "Oh, by the way. Chatot wants to see you guys. Something about Grovyle."

"Him again?" I sighed, turning to face my team. "Alright guys, Alex, Flare, Lisa and I are gonna head to the guild to meet with Chatot."

Austin crossed his arms. "Eve, that's great and all, but what about the rest of us?"

"Oh yeah! You guys should stay here in case Emma, Evelyn and my mom need help." I replied. "I don't think we'll need more than four to handle this."

Austin seemed surprised. "Oh. Well ok then..."

* * *

**Wigglytuff's Guild:**

Once we reached the second level of the guild, I immediately tensed. That Dusknoir guy was here. At first, I just passed him off as some famous guy I hadn't heard of, but Alex seemed pretty nervous around him. It just didn't make sense. Alex was always calm...

Regardless, we joined the assembly that had gathered as Chatot began to speak.

"Ahem! So as you all may know, our friends in Team Eviolite have recently come into contact with Grovyle, the time gear thief. Unfortunately, the time gear from the lake beneath the northern desert has been stolen." Chatot gestured towards Dusknoir. "The Great Dusknoir has joined us here today with hopes that we may capture this thief before he gets his hands on the last time gear."

Dusknoir nodded. "Hopefully with your cooperation, we'll be able to anticipate Grovyle's next move and prepare for his arrival."

"But how are we supposed to anticipate anything if we don't know where the time gear is?" Sunflora asked.

Dusknoir seemed to consider this. "Ahh, yes. Well perhaps we should consider locations we've already checked before expanding further." He turned to Wigglytuff. "Wigglytuff, one of your teams recently visited Crystal Cave, am I correct?"

"Hey Bidoof! Show him the crystal already!" Loudred shouted in frustration.

I smirked. "Can't keep quiet for long can you Loudred." I teased.

He sent me a glare. "What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Now now. Let's not start a fight here." Chatot intervened. "Bidoof. What's this about a crystal?"

Bidoof sunk back a little. "Well, the crystals in Crystal Cave were just so shiny. I couldn't resist taking one." He reasoned.

I observed the crystal curiously. "Ooh! Could I see that for a second Bidoof?"

He shrugged. "Umm. I guess so. Just be careful..." He handed the crystal to me.

"Hmm... This looks pretty cool." I observed. "How many crystals were..." I was about to ask when the crystal slipped from my grasp. Luckily, Alex was there to catch it. "Oh. Thanks Alex. That crystal was surprisingly slippery."

When he didn't reply, I frowned. "Alex?" I asked, trying to get his attention. He had zoned out with the crystal in his hand. I reached out to shake him, but my paw was instantly repelled back. "Oww!" I exclaimed. It felt like I just got zapped by electricity.

"Eve? Is something wrong?" Bidoof asked worriedly? I simply shook my head and turned my attention back to Alex.

I decided to try again, reaching out to shake Alex out of his trance. Right before I touched him however, I was suddenly and violently flung back across the room and into a wall. I heard the gasps of everyone in the room as they all rushed to check on me.

"Eve! Are you ok?!" I heard Flare ask as she held out a paw.

I accepted it with a cough as she helped me find my footing. "Ugh. What was that?" I asked out loud before searching for Alex. "Alex?!"

"Over here..." He replied painfully as he sat up from the opposite wall. "Don't worry, I'm fine." He reassured.

I let out a sigh of relief. "At least you snapped out of it."

"I think I know where the last time gear is." He stated, trying his best to ignore what had just happened. Or did he even notice? He made his way over to Bidoof and returned the crystal. "It's definitely in that cave."

"You sound rather sure of yourself for someone who should have a concussion." Dusknoir observed. "How can you be so sure?"

"Well I, err..." He fumbled nervously, not knowing what to say.

"He just has awesome intuition!" I exclaimed, running to his defense. "Can't hide anything from this guy. Right Alex?"

He seemed to catch on quick and nodded. "Of course. It just seems like the logical place to hide a time gear."

Dusknoir cast us a suspicious glance before nodding. "I do suppose such a place would be suitable for hiding a time gear..." He agreed.

"It's settled then!" Wigglytuff exclaimed. "Crystal Cave it is! Everyone get ready! Grovyle must be caught!"

Chatot looked to his friend worriedly. "But Guildmaster. Are you sure? If we go in based purely off intuition, the thief might actually get away."

Wigglytuff smiled. "Nonsense! Friends must trust friends! Everything'll be fine."

Chatot sighed. "You all heard what he said. The destination is Crystal Cave. Make sure to pack carefully. We're still not certain of how powerful Grovyle is."

With that, the guild dispersed, Chatot and Wigglytuff heading back into their chamber. Dusknoir simply left.

"Well then, I guess we should get going then." I suggested.

"Not so fast Eve." Chimecho cut in, approaching us with a first aid kit. You and Alex aren't leaving until I examine you.

"What? Oh come on." I complained.

* * *

**Grace Family House, Ella's POV:**

"Ella, it's no use. The spell's a dud." Emma sighed. "To think I'd find my kid, only to give him bad news like this."

"I think we should keep this one to ourselves Emma." I suggested. "Those kids have already suffered through enough dealing with our problems. We should've ended this years ago."

The golden eyes pikachu tapped her foot on the floor impatiently. "Then what do you suggest we do? Sam's out there somewhere and we have no way to track him."

"I'm suggesting we go out and search for him ourselves. There are some things magic can't solve." I replied. "Something I wish Shade could've learned."

She frowned. "Still feeling sorry for that guy eh?" She shook her head. "Regardless, what are you gonna do about your kids. I doubt they'd like you just up and leaving. Especially that Eve. She sure grew up in a...weird way..."

"Well you're certainly not wrong." I laughed. "Honestly, I was a bit worried about her. Despite all of her enthusiasm, she's never been all that mature. It seems to be working for her though. She's even managed to get Luke to open up more."

She smirked. "I don't think it's her personality you have to worry about."

"Hmm? What do you mean?" I inquired.

She shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, I might be wrong, but don't you think it's weird that she invited that kid to live here?"

I paused. "...Oh please no."

* * *

**Austin's POV:**

After a while, Ella, Evelyn and my mom reemerged from the library. They seemed worried about something, which didn't do much to reassure me about the missing dad situation.

Once Mom spotted me, she made her way over. "Sorry kiddo. The tracking spell failed. Looks like we have no idea where your father is."

I sighed. "Man... I wish that riolu with the scythe had told me a bit more than just your eye color. Finding Dad's gonna be difficult."

Mom gave me a confused look. "Riolu with a scythe?"

"Oh! There's this riolu Alex fought at one of Marowak's tournaments. She uses this sort of scythe as a weapon. Anyway, she gave Eve information about you and Dad." I explained.

Evelyn frowned. "A riolu with a scythe..."

"What is it Evelyn?" I asked her. She seemed to be contemplating something.

"Huh?! Oh. It's nothing." She smiled.

"Alright then..." I shrugged. "So I guess we should get to searching for Dad. It can't be too hard to find him if the whole team searches."

Mom shook her head. "Sorry Austin, but I don't want you to get involved in this. You guys already have enough to worry about. We'll handle the search."

I frowned. "Are you sure? I mean, it would certainly help to have more of us searching around."

She shook her head. "This is our responsibility. You just focus on your exploring." She smiled before turning to face Thomas. "I see you're still as quiet as ever." She chuckled.

Thomas smiled. "Hello Emma."

She sighed. "Honestly Thomas, just call me Mom." She suggested, making her way over to him and ruffling the fur atop his head. "By the way. Ella. Where's Shard been? Don't tell me he's trying to avoid helping."

Ella rolled her eyes jokingly. "Shard's still in the library. I sent him to search for a backup spell."

"Figures. You should really reorganize back there Ella. It's no wonder he's been gone so long." She joked.

"Really funny..." Ella replied.

* * *

**Eve's POV:**

"Who's ready for another awesome exploration?!" I exclaimed just as soon as we reached the crossroads. I received a few odd looks from townsfolk who happened to be passing by, but I didn't really care.

"Eve. This is a serious mission. Grovyle's dangerous remember? He could really hurt us if he got the chance." Alex reminded me.

I shrugged. "I know. All we've gotta do is beat him up and capture him though. Right?"

"Uhh... Yeah. I guess so." Alex replied, seemingly at a loss for words. Flare and Lisa had laughed though.

I smirked and poked him on the cheek. "Heh. Just kidding. I know how serious this is. Lighten up a little." I teased him with a wink.

He blushed lightly with embarrassment while Flare and Lisa laughed.

"You let her tease you too much Alex." Flare chuckled.

He sighed. "I'm smart, not clever."

I laughed. "Alright smart not clever, let's get going before everyone beats us to the cave."

* * *

**Crystal Cave, Flare's POV:**

The route to the dungeon had once again been quite an eventful one. Apparently, diving off of waterfalls was one of Eve's favorite pastimes. Luckily none of our team members were charmanders. With Eve for a leader, I had a feeling we were going to be doing this for quite a while, and I had serious doubts on magic's ability to relight a tail flame.

Suddenly Eve jumped with excitement, Lisa seemingly mimicking her. "Ooh! This place looks awesome! Look at all the crystals!" She exclaimed, admiring the dungeon's abundance of crystals.

Lisa had made an effort to follow Eve around everywhere she went, which I found pretty cute. Eve hadn't noticed, but she had become quite the role model.

I chuckled, watching Lisa desperately try to keep up with Eve as she dashed around the dungeon's rooms examining everything she could.

I decided to approach Lisa, who after only a minute of effort looked completely winded. "You ok there?"

She looked up at me, panting. "Huh? Oh. Yeah. This is nothing! I'm totally fine!"

I chuckled. "I bet. So, how long have you been a fan of Eve?"

She looked a bit embarrassed. "Well... Not very long. Just since she fought in that tournament. She was so cool!"

I smiled. "Heh. So I've heard." I replied. "By the way, I'm pretty sure Alex knows something we don't. He's the only one I know who can keep up with Eve."

"Oh so it's not just me." She laughed. "How does she have that much energy?

I shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. Which reminds me. I should really lock my door at night. Marker doesn't come out of fur that easily." I replied, gesturing towards my face. I was just barely able to wash the marker off my face at the waterfall, not that it helped much. Everyone at the guild had already seen the damage Eve caused.

"Heh. Oh yeah! She got you good!" She laughed.

I sighed. "You like pranks too don't you?"

She nodded. "Yep! As long as they don't hurt anyone."

I shook my head. "You two are gonna make a frightening team."

* * *

**Crystal Cave Midpoint, Eve's POV:**

The dungeon flew by like a breeze. I didn't even notice any enemy pokemon. Then again, I was too busy looking at the crystals...

"Eve! Wait up!" Alex shouted from behind me as he caught up, panting heavily. "You...really need to stop doing that..."

I shrugged. "Why? You're getting faster. Plus, this is really healthy for you. You could even consider it training." I smirked.

He sighed. "Yeah. Maybe for the military." He complained. "You're the fastest runner I've ever met. Back in my world, you'd probably be some sort of all star athlete."

"Military? What's that?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Hmm? Oh, uhh. Don't worry about it. Just a human world term." He replied quickly.

"Oh. Ok then." I shrugged. "Hmm?" Looking ahead, I noticed three odd looking crystals sticking out of the ground in such a way that they formed a triangle. They were all different colors. "What's up with those crystals?"

Alex looked at the crystals curiously. "Hmm... They're certainly different than the rest of the crystals in this cave, and we seem to have reached a dead end..."

"Well whatever it is, they look really cool." I stated, walking over to the red one and placing my paw on it. I jumped back when it suddenly changed color. "Woah! Did you see that Alex?! It turned blue!"

"Really?" He asked me as he walked over to the green one across from me. "Hmm..." Once he touched the crystal, it turned orange. "Looks like they change color when you touch them."

I turned around and looked at the other two. "I wonder what would happen if we made all of these the same color as the normal crystals." I said, pointing at the blue crystal I had touched just a moment before.

"The same color as the normal ones? So blue." Alex turned around and touched his crystal again until it turned blue and then repeated it with the third crystal. "Huh..."

Suddenly the crystals let out a bright flash of light before the ground began to shake violently. "An earthquake?! Ok, maybe that was a bad idea."

Alex quickly made his way over to me. "Come on Eve! It's not safe here!" He stated before grabbing my paw and leading me back the way we came.

Turning around, I noticed something rising up from the ground. "Hey Alex. Look!"

"What is it?" He asked as we both turned around.

A giant crystal had risen from the ground just between the three weird crystals. There was an odd looking opening in the center of it. "Ooh! I think I just solved a puzzle!" I smiled.

"Some puzzle. I think that opening leads deeper into the cave." Alex proposed.

Just then, the others caught up. "Alex! Eve! We felt some sort of earthquake! What happened?!" Flare asked, running up to us with Lisa on her back.

"Huh? Oh hi Flare! What took you so long? We already solved the puzzle." I replied, completely ignoring her question.

"Uhh... ok? And earthquakes were a part of the puzzle?" She asked.

"Apparently." Alex nodded. "Still, we should hurry. Grovyle could've already beaten us there."

I nodded. "Alright guys! Everyone into the giant crystal!"

* * *

**Crystal Lake:**

Surprisingly, the inside of the crystal wasn't a dungeon. Instead, we found ourselves climbing down a long spiral staircase made of crystal. I was tempted to slide down the railing, but Alex convinced me not to. Apparently crystal was a lot more slick than normal rails, and we were pretty high up. It was still pretty disappointing though.

Once we reached the bottom, we exited into a wide open room with a lake covered in crystals.

"Well we found the lake. Looks like my vision was right." Alex said as he started scanning our surroundings.

"Heh. You and your visions." I smirked before doing the same. "Wait a minute. There's someone over there..." I observed, pointing to a small island in the center of the lake. "Think it's the guardian?"

Alex shrugged. "Only one way to find out. Let's hurry!" He suggested as we hurried along the shore of the lake, heading towards the island thing.

We stopped about halfway when we spotted another person. The two seemed to be facing each other. "Did someone make it here before us?" I asked out loud.

Alex squinted, attempting to make out the second person. "Mmm..." He muttered, walking forward a bit more to get a closer view.

We all followed suit and soon the familiar figure of Grovyle came into view. "Grovyle?! How does he keep beating us here?" I complained. I wanted to be the first to solve that puzzle...

"I think we have bigger problems than that. It looks like he's attacking someone." Flare announced, pointing towards the other person. They seemed to be floating with their back to the lake, but something was off. "We should-"

Without thinking, I dashed forward as fast as I could towards the pair of pokemon. I didn't know if Grovyle was going to attack or not, but I wasn't taking any chances. "Stop!" I shouted as I rapidly approached the two.

The rest went by in a blur. Before I knew it, I was directly in front of Grovyle, my paw was bleeding, and everything was quiet.

"Ugh... What?! You?!" Grovyle exclaimed, looking speechless. "What are you doing here?!" He demanded, yet I was still having trouble registering what had happened.

Looking towards my paw, I noticed that the leaf on Grovyle's arm had sliced through it. It wasn't deep, but that didn't stop it from hurting. "You... you were trying to attack someone." I winced, realizing that I had blocked a leaf blade attack with my paw.

He growled in frustration. "Why must you people get in the way?! Step aside!" He demanded once again, but he was noticeably shaken by my sudden action.

I smirked. "Heh. Why don't you make me?" I challenged, pulling my injured paw back and gesturing at him mockingly.

He sighed. "I have no reason to fight you. This would go over so smoothly if you didn't intervene." He glared at me. "If you won't move, then I guess I'll have no choice but to force you."

"Bring it!" I challenged just as he slashed at me with another leaf blade.

This time I didn't need to block it, so I simply dodged. Not wasting any time, I pulled back my paw and moved in for a counter attack, pouncing towards him as quickly as I had dodged.

He reacted quickly however and quickly dove under the ground.

"He can use dig?" I asked rhetorically as I searched for him. "Well then." I muttered before sitting down. I had been working on my double team and I figured out a way to make a lot more clones than usual.

Focusing just for a second, I took in a slow breath before placing my paws together and exhaling quickly. Not a second later, a large ring of clones encircled the area. I stood up and quickly ran along the circle, instructing my clones to do the same.

Soon Grovyle resurfaced, not knowing who to attack. "Ugh. Enough of your games. I'm in a hurry!"

I shot him a smug grin. "Sorry. No can do!" I made sure to make my clones do the same so he couldn't tell which was the real me.

He sighed. "You people are relentless." He muttered before returning to his attacking position. Soon, he had prepared a full powered energy ball. "Don't think I can't tell where you are." He said as he rush towards me.

"Hey Eve! Are you ok?!" Alex shouted from behind me. His shout was enough to distract me from the incoming attack and I was hit head-on. There was an explosion before I hit the ground hard. "Eve!" Alex exclaimed, running to assist me.

Grovyle once again sighed. "If you had the guts to challenge me, you should've at least had the skill to back it up." He shook his head before turning around.

I smirked. "The skill huh?" I said before my body disappeared. To him at least."

"What?!" He exclaimed, turning around to see I was missing. He then turned to my clones. "I could've sworn that was the original..."

He probably couldn't use double team. If he could, he'd know that I could see whatever any of them saw. Too bad.

Once I was sure of where he was, I erupted up from the ground in front of him and slammed my paw into his chest. The blow seemingly knocked the air out of him as he flew back fast and into a crystal. The crystal shattered on impact. Needless to say, he didn't get back up.

Shaking out the dirt from my fur, I shot him a glare. "That's what you get for making me use dig!" I sighed as the rest of my clones disappeared.

Alex looked speechless. "Eve... Did you just..."

I laughed. "Told ya I'd beat him up!"

He just stared at me before shaking his head. "Why do I even bother asking?"

Lisa was practically jumping from excitement. "That was so awesome! Eve! How'd you make your clones do that?!"

I chuckled. "I'll tell ya later kiddo." I replied before pulling a rope out of my treasure bag. "Hey Flare. Think you could tie Grovyle up with this?" I asked, tossing her the rope.

She nodded, catching the rope and making her way over to the now unconscious outlaw.

I however had other plans. I turned around and faced the other pokemon. This one looked just like Uxie and Mespirit, but was blue this time. "Hey uhh. Are you ok?"

The pokemon, who was now on the floor wincing in pain, nodded slowly. "I'll be fine. Just a scratch." The pokemon, a girl by the voice, replied. She slowly began floating again. "That being said, it seems I have to thank you. You may have just saved my life." She thanked us. "Even if I didn't get to use my awesome fail-safe..."

Alex approached me worriedly, picking up my injured paw and examining it. "This looks pretty bad Eve. Do we have any medical supplies?"

"Huh? It's just a small scratch. Nothing to worry about." I denied, yet he was right. It hadn't stopped bleeding yet and this cave wasn't exactly sanitary.

"Eve, I'm serious. You can act tough later." He sounded even more worried.

I sighed. "Fine fine. I should have extra oran and pecha berries in my bag. I think Chimecho gave us some bandages too."

He nodded and soon got to work on fixing my wound. "So uhh, what's your name?" I asked the uhh, lake guardian?

She nodded. "I suppose I do owe you that. My name is Azelf."

I smiled. "Cool! I'm Eve!" I introduced myself. "And this is Lisa and Flare." I gestured to them respectably. "And Mr. nurse over here is my boyfriend Alex."

Alex rolled his eyes as he continued his work.

Azelf nodded. "Well then. It's nice to meet you all. Especially now that you've caught that thief." She motioned towards Grovyle. "Come to think of it, Uxie and Mespirit mentioned something about an eevee and her exploration team. Guess you met them too."

I nodded. "Yep! Fun times!"

"Ooh! What happened here?" A familiar yet jolly voice asked from behind us. We all turned to see Wigglytuff with his usual smile as he walked up to the edge of the lake. "Well isn't that pretty!" He smiled before facing me. "Hiya Eve! Caught Grovyle did ya?! That's great!"

I wanted to question how he already figured that out, but I knew it would be useless. "Hi Wigglytuff!"

Azelf nodded to Wigglytuff. "This is your guildmaster I presume?"

Wigglytuff turned to Azelf. "Hiya friend! Nice to meet ya!"

"By the way Wigglytuff. Where's the rest of the guild?" I asked him curiously.

"Hmm?" He seemed to think for a second. "Oh! I left them behind at the stairs! I just had to slide down the railing!" He smiled joyously.

Dang it!

* * *

**Grace Family House:**

Luckily the other guild members offered to take Grovyle to the guild, so we got to head back home. None of us knew what they'd do with Grovyle, but apparently the police were already in the process of returning the time gears.

Once we arrived home, everyone headed off to their respective rooms. It wasn't too late, but we were all pretty tired from the events of the day.

"You coming Eve?" Alex asked from the hallway.

"Huh? Oh umm. Yeah. I'll be there in a second. Just go ahead." I told him.

He seemed unsure, but headed off to our room regardless.

I sighed. A lot had happened today and I was wiped out. I walked over to the couch and sat my bag down before climbing onto it and pulling out the note from earlier.

To my new enemies... I still didn't know what it meant, and I didn't want to read the note. Before I knew it, a tear had rolled off my cheek and landed on the envelope. Then another, and another... "Connor..."


	18. The Future!

* * *

_"Let hope purify a soul twisted by darkness. May it never wither. The sun rises again."_

* * *

**Grace Family House, Ella's POV:**

It was already slightly past midnight and I had yet to catch a blink of sleep. Despite Emma's warnings, I just couldn't get over the fact that my tracking spell had worn off over the years. I sighed, closing a book after several failed attempts at finding a solution. "So much for long lasting... "

Shard, Evelyn and Emma had long since gone to bed, but I just couldn't find it in myself to do the same. Several people were counting on me, but it seems I just made their problems all the more complicated. I had to find something. I shook my head, reaching out for another book when the sound of crashing books made me stop.

"Ugh. Oww! Stupid books..." Came Eve's voice from behind me.

I turned around to find that Eve had accidentally bumped into a shelf, knocking a couple rows of books on top of herself. "Eve?" I called out, making my way over to her. "What are you doing up so late? Great explorers need to be responsible about sleep." I half scolded her, helping her up with my ribbons.

"Huh? Oh umm. It's nothing. I just couldn't sleep." She replied. I frowned. Her eyes looked slightly red and puffy, as if she had been crying.

"Eve sweetie. Are you alright?" I asked her worriedly.

She sighed. "Yeah, I'm good. They were just books."

I shook my head. "No. I mean, is everything alright?

"I... Well..." She let a couple of tears slip before rushing to me for a hug. "I-It's Connor Mom. I don't know what to do. H-he left a letter, but... But I can't open it. I just can't... I-I'm scared." Her voice broke as she quietly sobbed.

I silently returned the hug, rubbing her back gently. "Shh. It's going to be ok sweetie." I reassured her. Losing a friend had hit her hard. This was all my fault. Just like many times before, I had failed at protecting my children. If I had only paid more attention to them...

Looking down at Eve, I was reminded of something she used to do when she was little and upset. I wasn't so sure how she'd react now that she was older, but it was worth a shot.

"Eve. Sweetheart." I started to get her attention. "Would you like to sleep with your father and I tonight? Would that help you feel better some?"

"Umm..." She tensed slightly. "Yeah..." She answered with a mix of relief and embarrassment in her tone.

I chuckled. "Alright sweetie."

* * *

**The next morning, Alex's POV:**

When I awoke the next morning, I found myself frowning. Not because I hadn't slept well, but because something felt missing.

Opening my eyes to search for Eve, I instead found Lisa curled up next to me, cuddling my side. Something about how peaceful she looked made me smile. Still...

I scanned the room, finding no sign of Eve. "Where's Eve?" I thought to myself, laying back and making sure not to disturb Lisa.

I guess I wasn't too worried about her. She'd proven she could take care of herself. But... I turned to face Lisa, deciding to let the topic slide. Eve had filled me in on why she brought Lisa here, but just what intentions she had made me curious.

It was then that Lisa stirred, waking up with a yawn. "Mmm..." She looked up at me. "Oh uhh... Morning Alex."

I smiled again. "Good morning Lisa."

She smiled a bit before scanning the room in confusion. "Where's Eve? Did she already leave?"

I shrugged. "I was wondering the same thing. I figured I'd wait for you to wake up before checking."

"Oh, uhh. Thank you." She replied, obviously not knowing what to say.

Before we could do anything else, a familiar loud siren rang out from the guild. We both shot out of the bed.

"What's that siren for?" Lisa asked.

"Only one way to find out." I replied as we exited the room.

By the time we reached the living room everyone had already gathered, including Eve who was covering her ears in discomfort.

I stopped just behind her and held my own hands over her ears to help. They should really consider rethinking their alert system. Some pokemon could get serious hearing damage if they weren't careful.

Once the siren ended, Eve turned to me with a thankful expression. "Thanks Alex. I don't get why they have to make that siren so loud."

I smiled. "So what happened to you last night. You didn't come to the room."

Eve seemed nervous. "Oh uhh. I guess I just fell asleep in the living room. Sorry if I worried you."

I shook my head. "Don't worry about it. I trust you. So what do you make of this siren?"

She shrugged. "Only one way to find out. Alright everyone! Hope you've got everything cause we've gotta make our way to the guild right now." She smirked. "Oh and uhh Austin. Nice tail." She snickered as she walked out the door.

Austin frowned. "Nice tail?" Looking back at his tail, he discovered that it had been dyed pink. When exactly she had found the time to do that I'll never know, but it was definitely her favorite color. "Wha?! Eve!" He exclaimed, running after her.

Lisa and I shared a laugh before heading out along with the rest of the team.

* * *

**Town Square, Eve's POV:**

There was some kind of gathering in town square by the time I arrived, and it seemed everyone in town was there. Even the other guild members were there.

Soon enough, Azelf, Uxie and Mespirit joined the crowd, so this must've been important.

"Eve!" Austin shouted from behind me.

I smirked, turning around. "Yes?"

He didn't look happy. "What's with the pink tail Eve?"

I snickered. "Well, yellow tails are a bit average for pikachu. I figured I'd make things a little interesting for you."

Austin sighed. "Why am I not surprised?"

I laughed. "Hey. At least I didn't dye all of your fur."

"Yeah yeah..." He frowned. "Hey. Isn't that Grovyle?" He asked, pointing in the direction of the crossroads.

I looked just in time to see a tied up Grovyle being escorted into town square by a couple of sableye. I frowned when I saw Dusknoir follow shortly behind.

The crowd parted to make room for them as they made their way to the center of the plaza. It was then that I noticed the strange black portal that was swirling around towards the back end of the plaza.

The crowd quieted down just as the rest of the team arrived. Dusknoir soon began to speak. "Ahem! So, as I am sure you are all aware, the time gear thief has been caught and is now in our custody." He announced, gesturing to Grovyle.

This was of course followed by a chorus of applause and cheers. I didn't participate though. I was too busy watching Grovyle. Did they have to bind him up so...barbarically? They could've at least left out the muzzle.

"Without your cooperation, this wouldn't have been possible. Thanks to all of your efforts we can finally put this criminal where he belongs, and your world can go back to being as peaceful as it was before." Dusknoir continued.

It was at that point that Grovyle started struggling against the ropes and producing muffled screams, none of which could be understood due to the ropes restricting his speech.

I was sure no one else saw it, but one of the sableye delivered a swift punch to Grovyle's side, most likely to quiet him. I frowned, anger starting to build in my chest. This wasn't right. Officer Magnezone would never treat a criminal like that, no matter how bad they were. Something was off...

"But I am afraid that it is also for that reason that I must bid you all farewell." He turned to Magnezone. "I trust that you will get the time gears back to their-"

"Wait just a moment!" I exclaimed, unable to hold it in any longer.

"Eve? What are you doing?" Alex asked me as everyone turned to face us.

Instead of replying, I started making my way towards Grovyle. "If you're going to handle a criminal so barbarically, then you shouldn't handle one at all." I stated aloud as I walked.

Once I reached Grovyle, I gave him a long stare before reaching to untie the ropes that were preventing him from speaking. All the while, everyone was silent. Once I removed the ropes I stepped back and returned to Alex.

"Err... You're right Eve. I'm terribly sorry. Perhaps we went too far when securing the criminal." Dusknoir continued, sounding embarrassed. "In any case, I trust that the time gears will be returned to their rightful locations." He repeated, attempting to regain his composure.

"Eve. Why'd you do that?" Alex asked me.

I sighed. "I don't know what to believe right now, but that's no way to treat a person."

By this time the sableye had already left with Grovyle, leaving only Dusknoir. "I bid you all farewell." He then turned around and hovered towards the portal thing. "Oh! But first, one more thing." He said, turning around. "Before I go. Alex, Eve. I have one last thing to say to you."

Suddenly I heard someone start screaming. "I'm afraid now is too early for goodbyes." Dusknoir stated grimly, holding up a struggling Lisa.

"Lisa?!" I exclaimed. "Let her go!"

He smirked, turning around and entering the portal as it began to close.

"Alex, let's go!" I shouted as I sprinted towards the portal as fast as I could, jumping over anyone who got in my way. Alex was right behind me as we dove straight into the portal. The last thing I heard was Ally shouting my name before everything went black.

* * *

**The Future, Alex's POV:**

"Eve, come on. Wake up." I pleaded as I shook her shoulder.

"Mmm... Five more minutes Ally." She mumbled, swatting my hand away and turning over.

"Come one Eve. You've got to-" I was about to start my second attempt, but she suddenly shot up so fast I fell backwards onto my back.

"Lisa?!" She turned to me, looking scared. "Alex, where's Lisa?!"

"I don't know Eve. We're in some kind of prison cell as far as I can tell, and she's not here." That might've been the worst thing I could've said, because at that moment Eve rushed to the gate that was keeping us in and started pounding on it as hard as she could.

"Eve wait! Don't make so much noise!" I warned her, quickly standing and meeting her at the gate. Before she could hit it again, I grabbed her leg. "Eve."

She looked at me, scared and confused. "W-what?"

I sighed, giving her a comforting smile. "It's going to be ok. We can find a way out of here."

She shook her head. "But...but Lisa."

"She's fine too. I doubt Dusknoir would hurt her. He was just using her to bait us. For now, we should try to focus on getting out of this cell." I gestured towards the gate. "Ok?"

It took her a while, but she finally calmed down. "Ok... But how are we gonna get out? It's locked and the bars are thick."

"That's...a good question." I sighed, scanning the gate for a lock. When I found one, I frowned. It was a rusted up padlock secured to a chain.

"What is it Alex? I can't see very well in here." Eve asked, searching for what I saw.

"It's a lock..." I replied. Looking back at Eve, I noticed she had started fastening her old gracidea flower to her hat rather than her ear. "Hey Eve. How do you keep your flower on your hat like that?"

"Hmm? My flower? I use a safety pin. I have a few spares in case it falls off, but how does that help us here?" She took her hat off to show me.

"Could I have the spares?" I asked to her confusion.

"Uhh... Sure I guess?" She replied, digging through her bag. Luckily they had neglected to confiscate it. "Here." She handed me a couple ordinary safety pins.

I turned around, sticking my arms through the bars to feel for the lock. Once I found it I opened the safety pins, inserting the pointed end of the pins into the lock in an attempt to pick it. All the while Eve stayed quiet. I could only assume she didn't want to distract me. Either that or she got distracted herself.

After several minutes of nothing, I finally heard a click as the lock popped open. I smiled, silently removing the lock and chain. "Come on Eve. I got it open."

"What? Really?" She asked, staring at the lock and chain in amazement. "How'd you do that?"

"I'll tell you later. Right now we need to get out of here." I turned around, slowly opening the gate so no one would hear. Afterwards we slipped out without a trace.

* * *

**Eve's POV:**

Alex always does these really cool things. I had no idea how he opened that lock, but it must've been some kind of human trick or whatever. In any case, I was getting a bit anxious. I know he said Dusknoir wouldn't hurt Lisa, but... "Hey Alex..."

"Hmm?" He replied, not turning to me. I guess he was trying to keep a lookout, but in this darkness I didn't see how.

"About Lisa. I umm... I wanted to ask you something." I whispered as we snuck around another corner.

He checked around, before looking back at me. "Can it wait until we get out of here?" When I didn't reply, he sighed. "Alright. Let's just find a place to hide first."

We continued sneaking our way through the unknown building until we came across a large room with three giant pillars in the center. Oddly enough, the pillars were the only things lit in the entire room.

"Hey. Maybe we can-." Alex covered my mouth, motioning for me to be quiet and to head for one of the pillars.

I nodded as we high tailed it towards the pillar on the right, hiding behind it just as the lights cut off. After a moment we could hear the quiet snickers of what I could assume were the sableye accompanied by the sounds of someone tying a rope. Soon after, the lights turned back on. All the while we kept to the back of the giant pillar, not wanting to be seen.

All of a sudden, we heard a fit of familiar yet creepy laughter come from the entrance of the room. "Well well Grovyle. It would seem that you are at a loss. Not only did you fail to gather the time gears, but you sold your only chance of escape to your little eevee cellmate. Just how far have you fallen?"

Peering around the corner I saw that it was indeed Dusknoir. He was speaking to one of the pillars, so I could only assume they had tied him to it.

"I had planned for this to be a three guest party, but I guess your friends had other things to attend to. No matter. Without you, they'll have nowhere to go but me." He chuckled.

"Pfft. Yeah. Like I'd ever expect you to understand sympathy." Someone replied. I assumed it was Grovyle, having heard his voice before. "Bringing that kid here was low. Even for someone like you."

"Hmm... Perhaps. But now you've got nowhere to run. I'd say it was well worth it."

Alex suddenly tapped me on the shoulder, pointing towards one of the sableye. The sableye had a sword. It was Alex's. I nodded back at him and created a clone, instructing it to dig a tunnel towards the sableye. After completing the tunnel, it popped up behind the sableye, grabbing the sword from him and tossing it down the hole before running out of the room.

One of the sableye attempted to retrieve the sword, but Dusknoir stopped him. "Fool! Leave it there. Catch that girl at once!"

With that the sableye fled, leaving only Dusknoir to guard the exit. I dove down the hole to retrieve the neglected sword for Alex, closing it up as I returned. "Now what?" I whispered to Alex.

He motioned towards the backside of Grovyle's pillar and I instantly got what he meant. "Go."

In that instant I shot out from behind the pillar and towards Dusknoir, who seemed quite surprised that I wasn't on my way down the hall by now. "Hey Dusknoir! Bet you're surprised to see me huh?"

He looked infuriated. "You! How did you get in here?!" He exclaimed, facing away from the pillars to glare at me.

I shrugged. "Guess you need to change your locks."

He looked about ready to attack me when he suddenly stopped, regaining his composure. "Very well. I commend you on your escape from your cell, but I'm afraid this is where it ends for you."

"I wouldn't count on that." Grovyle cut in. We both looked over to find that he was free from his bindings. "What? Surprised?"

By now, Dusknoir looked beyond angry. "Why you!" He exclaimed, leaping towards Grovyle.

Grovyle however had other plans, pulling out a luminous orb and smashing it on the ground. The room went white and before we knew it, we were underground again.

I looked around. This looked different than my digging. We were inside a sort of spherical space, and there wasn't a tunnel to the surface. "Hey. How did you-?"

"Shh." Grovyle motioned for me to be quiet as Dusknoir could be heard cursing up above.

"You fools! That was just a clone!" He shouted, most likely at the sableye. "Move! We must catch those troublesome meddlers before they cause us any more trouble!"

Once there was no longer any noise above ground, we surfaced. "Ugh... I've got too much dirt in my fur..." I complained, attempting to shake it out before staring Grovyle down. "Dusknoir said something about your eevee cellmate. Where is she?"

He held his arms up in defense. "Woah woah. Relax. She's fine. Dusknoir let her go in exchange for me staying put. You should be thanking me."

I shook my head. "Not until I see her."

He sighed. "Don't be so troublesome kid. You'll get yourself killed." He took a moment to check the hallways before motioning for us to follow.

* * *

**Outside Stockades:**

Once we reached the outside, it became more apparent why everything was so dark. There were also floating...rocks too? What? "Uhh Grovyle? What's with the floating rocks?"

He shot me a grim look. "They aren't floating. They're frozen. Time doesn't move here."

"What? How is time frozen? We just...wait. Is this the future?" I asked him. He simply nodded.

"Why is time frozen? Everyone returned the time gears right? This doesn't make any sense." Alex cut in. "Dusknoir is the enemy. No doubt about it, but then why did you steal the time gears? Certainly you knew it would stop time."

Grovyle shook his head. "We can speak later. Right now we need to move. Your little friend is just up ahead. If we hurry, we can reach her before she gets herself lost."

I nodded. "Right." With that, Grovyle continued to lead us down the dark dirt path.

To pass the time, I decided to continue our conversation from earlier. "Hey uhh, Alex."

"Yeah Eve?" He replied, turning to face me.

"Since we're kinda safe now, can we talk about Lisa?" I asked him.

"I uhh. I guess so. What was it that you wanted to ask?" He asked, looking curious.

"Well... I just kinda wanted to know. Would it be ok with you if I adopted her? I mean, I didn't want to do it without asking you, but I really want to!" I confessed.

He smiled. "I figured that's what you'd say." He looked up to the sky for a bit before looking back at me. "Of course it's ok with me. She's a nice girl, but your parents are gonna flip." He laughed.

"Really?! Thank you!" I exclaimed, hugging him around the neck, only to receive a quick "shh" from Grovyle. "Sorry..."

A few minutes later, Grovyle stopped. "This is where she should be."

I frowned. "Well where is she?"

Just then, Lisa came running out from behind a boulder and nearly tackled me to the ground, crying the whole time. "Eve! You're ok! I thought I'd never see you again!" She sobbed.

I just smiled, patting her on the back. "Come on now. Like that guy could ever beat me." I pulled away with a smirk.

She laughed. "Yeah. I-I guess so... Oh! By the way, I saw this strange light all the way down there." She pointed down to somewhere below the cliff we were on. "I figured it was somewhere we needed to go."

"You've got a good eye kid." Grovyle cut in. "That's the tree of hope. Also known as the only living plant on the planet in this terrible future. It's where we're meeting a friend of mine."

"We? Who said anything about we?" Alex asked. "You still haven't told us anything about why you stole the time gears. For all we know, you could still be a criminal."

Grovyle sighed. "Look. I know it's hard to believe that stealing those relics was for a good cause, and I'll get to my explanation soon, but for now you're just going to have to trust me. Right now, I'm your only guide back to your own time."

Alex seemed to get it. "I see. I guess we don't have a choice."

Grovyle nodded. "Anyway, we should head out before Dusknoir and his minions decide to catch up to us. Oh and uhh, don't worry about supplies. There are no mystery dungeons here."

"No mystery dungeons? Then how did you know how to survive in one when you came to the past?" Alex asked him.

He was about to answer when the sound of the sableye came within earshot. "I'll tell you later. We have to go now!" With that, we fled the scene.

* * *

**Town Ruins:**

It took us about an hour to descend the slope leading down from the cliff and once we reached the bottom, we entered what looked to be a town in ruins. Whole buildings were destroyed, graffiti was everywhere, and the road was dug up in multiple places. "Grovyle. What is this place?"

It took him a while to respond. "This was once a major town on this continent. Now it lies in ruins. For obvious reasons, this is called the town ruins."

I scanned the town once again. "That's so sad."

He nodded. "In any case, the tree should be just up ahead." He pointed towards a bright light in the distance. "There we should run into Celebi."

"Celebi? Isn't she the time travel pokemon?" Alex asked him.

Grovyle nodded. "Exactly. Hopefully with her help we'll be able to return to your time."

I frowned, looking back at Lisa who had fallen asleep on my back. "I hope the others are ok. We did just disappear into a portal right in front of them."

Alex laid a hand on my shoulder. "I'm sure they're fine Eve. Austin and Ally are perfectly capable of handling the team while we're gone."

"I hope so… I don't know how long we'll be here." I sighed.

"Hey. Look sharp. We've got to keep up the pace or Dusknoir will catch up." Grovyle reminded us as he began walking towards the tree.

I shook my head. "Ugh. He's right. What are we doing contemplating everything all the sudden? Let's just go!" I shouted, running to catch up to Grovyle. Alex followed shortly behind as we started making progress again.

Along the way, I decided to pass the time by examining some of the houses. A lot of them were completely destroyed, but oddly enough some were just gone. As if they had just up and vanished. Odd…

* * *

**Tree of Hope:**

After about fifteen minutes, we reached the tree. It wasn't very big, only about average size for a tree, but it produced enough light to brighten up a majority of the surrounding area. The tree's bark seemed to emit a soft pink glow.

"Alright. We should be able to rest here for the moment. Celebi usually takes her time, and we've managed to gain some distance on Dusknoir." He walked up to the tree and laid back against it.

We were about to do the same, but upon reaching the tree we noticed an odd carving in its bark. "A carving?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah. That carving has been there for a while as far as I know. Some lovers or something." He answered.

"Lovers?" I approached the tree to get a better look. When I saw the carving, my jaw dropped. It was a heart shape with writing in the center. "Austin + Ally" was written in the center. "This is Austin and Ally's tree."

Grovyle cast a glance at me. "You know those two? Are they important figures from your time?"

"Important figures? They're my friends. Well Ally's my sister, but still." I replied, much to his surprise.

"Well then. I won't say that doesn't raise a few questions, but I'll just ignore it for now." He sighed. "By the way, if you want to know about how I know about mystery dungeons or my true intentions, now would be the time."

"Oh yeah!" I quickly laid down, Alex sitting beside me. "Go ahead. I wanna hear."

He nodded. "It was about three years ago. Back then I was just like every person who's ever been corrupted by this neverending darkness. Much like Dusknoir, I only sought to preserve myself." He paused, as if he didn't want to continue. "That is until the day I met Avalon."

"Avalon?" I reiterated.

"Yes, Avalon was his name. You see the first time I discovered this tree, there was already someone else there. An eevee. He was standing by the tree, looking at it like he was admiring it or researching it. I can't remember which one, but that's not important. What's important is what he said to me. He told me that the darkness that plagued the world was never meant to exist. I still don't know exactly what he meant by that, but it's the reason I started thinking differently. As for how I know about dungeons, he taught me about the past. I visited him every day or so for two years before I met Celebi and decided to head for your time." He finished.

"And what about the time gears? Why were you stealing them if you knew they'd stop time?" Alex cut in.

Grovyle sighed. "That's only temporary. I was collecting them so I could prevent this catastrophe, but you all know how well that turned out."

"Don't tell me you messed up again my dear Grovyle" A voice called out suddenly in a teasing fashion. Before we could ask however, a pink Celebi appeared before us with a wink. "Ooh. And who are your friends? They look rather friendly."

"Hiya! My name's Eve!" I introduced myself.

For perhaps the first time since we first saw him, Grovyle smiled. "Hello Celebi. As energetic as ever I see."

She turned to face him. "Well in this darkness, my energy is the only thing keeping me going. Why don't you act cheery once in awhile? I bet this is the first time these three have even seen you smile."

He rubbed the back of his neck out of embarrassment. "It's nice to see you're alive and well Celebi."

"Like I'd ever get caught." She smirked. "So, I assume you're looking for the passage?"

"The passage?" I cut in. Celebi shot me a glance.

"You never told them about where you were taking them? Just how inhospitable have you been to these three?" She scolded him.

He could only sit there and take it. "The passage of time to be more exact. It's a gate between timelines that I used to travel to your time before. It never stays in the same location, so I need Celebi to find it for me."

"So like a time machine?" I blurted out excitedly. "Cool!"

"Uhh… Yeah. Sort of like that." He replied. "It's just, well, not a machine." He turned to Celebi. "In any case, have you found the passage yet?"

She smirked. "You know it! I'm ready when you are!"

He nodded, standing up. "Good. Then we better get going before Dusknoir and the sableye catch up. I'll be up ahead. Once you're ready, just come tell me." He instructed before walking ahead.

Once he was gone, Celebi sighed. When I questioned her about it, she just shook her head. "It's nothing. I just wish that Grovyle would take it slow every once in awhile. He spends every waking moment on this mission, and while it is noble, I just wish I could spend more time with him."

Spend more time with him? Wait a minute. One look at my smug glance was enough to make her nervous.

"N-not for any weird reasons or anything of course!" She held up her arms in protest. "It's just that we're really good friends and all." Her pink cheeks were now a deep crimson color.

"Mhmm." I smirked. "Whatever you say." I teased as Alex and I made our way towards Grovyle.

"We're just friends! Honest!" Celebi shouted after us.

* * *

**Town Outskirts:**

After meeting up with Grovyle, we set off on a course to some forest. I wasn't paying attention, so I didn't catch the name, but I heard it was pretty foggy or something. Must've been related to Foggy Forest.

Anyway, it took us about half an hour until we arrived and by then my paws were starting to hurt. I mean, I was used to walking and running everywhere, but we had been going at it nearly non-stop since we left the stockades.

"Alright. The passage should be just beyond that forest. If we hurry, we can make it before Dusknoir even realizes we're gone. If we don't… Let's try not to think about that ok?" Grovyle suggested.

"Man. This place really is foggy. How are we supposed to see anything with this darkness and the fog?" I complained.

"Welcome to our world." Grovyle replied before leading us into the forest.

The forest itself was eerily quiet. There weren't any sounds, as if the place was completely deserted. I mean I guess I wouldn't put it past anyone to leave this place, but it was still creepy. What made it worse though was this darkness. Every once in awhile one of us would step on a stick and I'd jump. It was embarrassing to say the least. Still, if I see a red balloon out here, I'm bolting.

After that half hour ordeal, we came upon a clearing with some sort of blue energy door towards the end of it. I assumed that was the passage Grovyle and Celebi were talking about, but decided to wait for them to say so.

"Well we're here!" Celebi announced. "Not much to it, but it'll get you to where you want to go."

I smiled. "Thanks Celebi!"

Grovyle nodded to Celebi. "Thanks for the help. Hopefully this time I can pull it off."

"As usual my dear." She smiled. "Just be safe will you."

I thought about what Celebi had said back at the tree. She said she wanted to spend more time with him. Couldn't she just go back with us? "Well then. What are we waiting for? Let's go!" I smiled, walking towards the passage, when suddenly everything went dark...or darker. "Uhh… What's going on?"

"Yes. What's going on indeed." A familiar voice responded. Once we could see again, Dusknoir and the sableye were guarding the passage.

I backed into a defensive stance. "Dusknoir!" I exclaimed as we stood back to back…to back to back. We were surrounded.

Dusknoir laughed. "Did you really think you could escape? I had eyes on you the entire time. Cute effort really. I applaud your efforts, but now it's time for your journey to come to an end."

Grovyle growled. "We walked right into his trap. I should've been more careful."

"Now you finally see it. It's useless to resist." He continued.

"So I guess we'll have to fight. You guys ready?" Grovyle concluded.

"Don't get ahead of yourselves. We haven't even gotten to the best part. Master, it's time!" He exclaimed.

Grovyle's face went pale as a loud sickening roar rippled through the area. "Oh no."

"What? What is it Grovyle?" I asked just as a huge pokemon dropped down from the sky, landing between us and Dusknoir.

"It's Primal Dialga." Grovyle explained. "He's the ruler of time turned savage beast. His only concern is his own self preservation, and he'll stop at nothing to achieve that. I'm afraid we no longer stand a chance."

Dusknoir seemed to smirk. "Ahh. So you are reasonable after all. Good to know."

I frowned. "Don't stand a chance? How will we know if we don't try?" I argued. "We have to fight."

Grovyle shook his head. "Primal Dialga is too powerful. We'll die before we even reach the passage, and he has the power to stop time travel. We'll never make it. But there's still a chance. My partner is still out there. You'll never catch him Dusknoir!"

He just laughed. "Oh Grovyle. I feel sorry for you. You actually believe that your partner is still in the past. I feel like I must commend you for your optimism, but sadly all hope for you is lost."

"What are you talking about?" Grovyle demanded.

Dusknoir simply shook his head. "As much as I would love to enlighten you Grovyle, I'm afraid that Master Dialga has other plans. My hands are tied. Not that it will matter to you when you don't exist."

Grovyle looked furious, clenching his fists in frustration. "Dusknoir! What aren't you telling me?!" After receiving no answer, all hope seemed to leave Grovyle's eyes as he fell silent, facing away from the rest of us. "This can't be..."

"Oh but it can! Sorry to say this Grovyle, but this is the end of your rebellion." Dusknoir exclaimed as if he had already won.

"No way! We're not giving up!" I turned to Grovyle. Come on. There's gotta be something!"

"To late! Master! If you will!" Dusknoir exclaimed.

Soon enough Dialga let loose yet another loud roar. This time it didn't hurt our ears. It instead felt kind of different, as if the everything had become a bit bigger. Looking around I noticed that where Grovyle had previously stood was now treeko. Oh…

"Guys. Did we just become younger?" I asked aloud, receiving my answer when my voice sounded much more high pitched than before. "Well that's...unique."

It was then that the sableye started to close in on us. "Hehe. Look at the little eevee. She looks scared. Maybe we should attack her first." One of them said.

Looking to my side, I noticed an even smaller Lisa quivering between us. They were talking about her. That alone was enough to make the anger I had felt back at town square return. "Alright. Which one of you said that?!" I asked, stepping forward.

The sableye looked between themselves before laughing. "Aww look. It's the other eevee sticking up for her friend. Perhaps we should teach this one a lesson first." Another sableye suggested before they all rushed towards me.

I glared at them, stepping back into my fighting stance and pulling back my paw. Once they were within range, I swung my paw forward towards the first one I saw with a yell. Now I had expected to hit one of the sableye. What I hadn't expected was for a massive shockwave to come rippling out of my paw to send them all flying.

With that, the area went quiet. Dusknoir's arrogant expression fell from his face just as fast as I blew away those sableye.

"Eve… What did you just do?" Grovyle asked me in surprise.

I turned back to him, just as surprised. "I don't know. I was just gonna hit one of them."

"Well whatever it is, keep doing it. Go!" He suggested.

I nodded. "Follow me!" I instructed as I rushed towards Dialga. Once I reached him, I leaped up and slammed my paw into the orange crystal in his chest. Once I did that, the same thing happened and he was pushed back a bit. Not only that, but his crystal was cracked.

The cracked crystal seemed to stun him for the most part, so I quickly turned to Celebi. I had a plan. "Celebi! Can you send us through time just a little? Like teleportation or something?"

She nodded. "Yes, but it might not-."

I shook my head. "Anything will work. Just do it."

"Alright. I'll try." She closed her eyes to focus. A faint glow soon enveloped us, and before we knew it we were right in front of the passage.

"Oh! It worked!" I exclaimed. "Quick! Everyone into the passage thingy!"

Dusknoir noticed us just as we were starting to enter, but by that time it was too late. Celebi however stopped before entering. I turned back. "Celebi. Aren't you coming?"

She shook her head. "I can't come. I have to stay here."

That's it. I've had enough. "You know what? No. You're coming too." I stated as if it were fact, grabbing her hand and dragging her in with me. Then, like before, everything went black.

* * *

**Unknown:**

I woke with a start, the sun hitting my face in an almost blinding fashion as I opened my eyes and sat up. "Huh?" I mumbled, scanning my surroundings for the others. My voice sounded like normal again, so I guess our ages had returned to normal. "Wait a minute." I stood up, noticing something odd about our surroundings. The sun had hit my face through a window and...there was a fish tank? We were in a house?

Looking around some more, I noticed I was alone. "Oh. I'm in a house." Suddenly I heard a crashing sound from behind me. Turning around and looking up, I saw a...human? That's what I thought it was at least. Alex told me what they looked like, but I thought I'd never see one. As for the crashing sound, it appeared that the human dropped some groceries when he saw me.

I looked him up and down. He was a physically fit guy I guess, wearing what looked to be a white lab coat, a white cap, grey shorts, and sunglasses. He was wearing something on his feet too, but I didn't know what they were. "Uhh… Hiya!" I greeted him. "My name's Eve!" I smiled.

He looked surprised however, just standing there and staring at me.

Oh wait. Alex said pokemon don't talk here… "Oops! Eheheh…"


	19. Reunion in Alola!

**Hau'oli City Beachfront, Alex's POV:**

"Hey. Hey kid. You ok?" Words filled my head as I slowly regained consciousness. The sudden shaking of my side was enough to wake me fully as I opened my eyes, staring up at an eevee with slightly enchanting purple eyes and...spiky head fur? That was a new one, not that it didn't fit. The guy seemed more excited than concerned, which was a bit off putting.

"Hmm?" I blinked. "Oh uhh. Yeah. I'm fine." I stood up, dusting the sand off my body. "Wait a minute." I took a moment to scan my surroundings, only to end up confused. It was a beach, but it definitely wasn't near Treasure Town. The water was much clearer and more blue, almost tropical. Not to mention the many beach umbrellas that populated it. Did Eve's world even have those? "Excuse me. Could you tell me where I am?"

The eevee seemed confused by the question, tilting his head and frowning. "You don't know? This is Hau'oli Beach! It's a pretty popular tourist destination in Alola. Pretty much everyone knows about it." He replied enthusiastically, as if he were a tour guide of some kind.

I crossed my arms. "Alola? I don't think I've heard of that before. Is that anywhere near Treasure Town?"

The eevee sat down, an oddly surprised look on his face. "Treasure Town?!" He paused, giving it some thought before shaking his head, seemingly changing his mind. "Never mind. The name's Cyrus! And you are?"

"I'm Alex. Nice to meet you. Listen uhh. Did you happen to see another eevee pass through here? Wears a fedora and a bow. With pink eyes?"

Cyrus looked shocked. "Pink eyes? What's her name? Where is she?" He asked me, somehow sounding more excited than he was before.

I shot him a suspicious look. I guess I didn't have a reason not to trust him, but... "Her name's Eve. Why?"

"Yes!" He exclaimed, shooting straight into the air, paw raised. "Can you take me to her? ...Oh wait, you don't know where she is. Could I tag along?" He spoke so fast that I almost missed what he had said. I was tempted to just say no and leave him there, but I didn't really know where I was.

With a sigh of resignation, I shrugged. "Sure I guess. Why not? But might I ask why you want to see Eve?"

He paused. "Oh! Sorry. I guess I should explain. I'll do it on the way alright? I think better on my feet."

"Sounds good. I'm assuming you know your way around here?" I asked, hoping his excitement level didn't reflect on his navigation skills. Eve had surprised me many times before, so I wasn't exactly in a position to use stereotypes.

"Sure do! Follow me!" He instructed energetically, spinning around on one foot and walking off in the direction of what looked to be a city.

I sighed, following after him. "Well, he's certainly excited."

Pokemon School, Lisa's POV:

"The poor thing. Do you think it's hurt?" I heard someone say as I slipped back into consciousness.

"I can't tell. Maybe it's just sleeping or something?" Spoke another voice.

"Well... We should probably take it to the pokemon center just to be safe...but where did it come from?" The first voice replied uncertainly.

"I've never seen it before, that's for sure."

It was then that I decided to open my eyes and search for the owners of the two voices. My vision was blurry at first as I blinked to adjust to the lighting, but I soon found myself looking up at something I didn't recognize.

"Oh! Ash look! It's awake!" Said one of the...uhh... people to her friend, who I guessed was named Ash.

"Really?" Asked Ash as he squatted down to look at me on a more even level. "Hey there. Are you ok?"

Once he spoke to me, I immediately shot up and backed myself against a wall. The fact that they were showing concern should've been enough to keep calm, but... "W-what are you?!" My voice noticeably shook with fear as I backed even further up against the wall.

The two seemed surprised. "Ash. Did that eevee just talk?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I thought only Meowth could do that."

I didn't reply. At the moment I was too afraid to even move, or hear for the matter. I had picked up on a few things like "eevee" and "meowth", but nothing served to ease my fear.

Ash suddenly smiled. "So you can talk huh? That's pretty cool."

"I don't think she's seen humans before Ash." His friend replied after I didn't respond.

"I guess you're right Lillie." He gave a nod in her direction before turning back to me. "Hey. It's ok. We're not gonna hurt ya. Honest. My name's Ash Ketchum and this is my buddy Pikachu!" He smiled. It was then that I noticed the pikachu perched on his shoulder. He didn't say anything at the moment, giving me an enthusiastic wave instead. I eased up a little and looked Ash up and down. Both he and Lillie stood on two legs and didn't have any fur. I found that last part a bit weird, but didn't think too much about it. The only thing he had that resembled fur was the spiky black hair on his head. He wore a blue shirt with white horizontal stripes, a red hat with some kind of curved white line on it, grey and red shorts, and...some kind of blue clothing that I could only guess protected his feet. Either that or they were his feet, but that seemed like a stretch.

Lillie wore a white dress with a bit of light blue towards the bottom. She wasn't wearing a hat, but she had really long blonde hair that went down in curls in the front. And...she was wearing something made of white fabric around her legs. The things on her feet were the same color as the bottom of her dress. Looking closer, Lillie also had a pokemon with her. She was holding a...white vulpix? Since when were vulpix white?

Having calmed down, I stepped away from the wall and took a few steps towards Ash. I tensed up once I realized how tall they got when I got closer, but decided to shake it off and endure it. After all, acting all scared wouldn't get me anywhere.

"All calmed down huh? That's good." He smiled. "I've never seen a talking eevee before. Have you really never seen humans before?"

My lack of fear allowed me to actually consider what he had said this time around. Humans... Come to think of it, didn't Eve say something about that... "Umm. No. I don't think so at least..." Suddenly a thought popped into my head as I started looking around frantically. Where's Eve?! We came through the portal thing together right?!

"Something wrong?" Ash asked, seemingly noticing my panic.

I shook my head. "Umm. Uhh. I don't know where I am and my friends are gone." I explained, the fear returning. "Can you help me?"

Ash gave a nod. "Hey. Don't worry. I'm sure we can help ya." He smiled reassuringly before standing up and turning back to Lillie. "Hey Lillie. Think you can go find Professor Kukui? He might be able to help."

Lillie nodded. "Mmm... Right! But what will you do? Shouldn't we stay together?"

"Nah. I'll stay with umm... Hey. What's your name?" He asked me.

"Oh! I'm Lisa! Nice to meet you I guess..." I replied. Thankfully I had run into some nice humans. If they didn't want to help, I'd probably never find the others.

He smiled. "Right. I'll stay with Lisa and help her look for her friends. Say hi to the professor for me will ya?"

Lillie nodded. "Well I guess I'll be off then. I don't think the professor will believe me though." She sighed as she left the room. She didn't seem to be too confident about it, but hopefully this Kukui guy could help too.

Looking around the room, I noticed I was in some kind of classroom. It wasn't too fancy or anything though. Just six wooden desks, some countertops, a bookshelf and an ordinary chalkboard. Other than the furniture, there were some decorative posters and some books, but nothing about them really caught my interest. "Hey Ash? What is this place?"

"Hmm? Oh! This is our classroom at the pokemon school." He explained enthusiastically.

I frowned. "The pokemon school? Is that a school for pokemon or something?"

"Yeah! Oh. Well uhh, not exactly. It's an awesome place where we come to learn more about pokemon and how to take care of them." He seemed oddly excited about learning. School always seemed boring to me, but maybe pokemon school was different... "So. Ya ready to start looking for your friends?"

I nodded. "Let's go!"

* * *

**Professor Kukui's Lab, Eve's POV:**

It had been a while since I had seen that professor guy. Probably half an hour. He said something about having to get new groceries and just left, leaving me with his rockruff friend. He told me to stay in the house though, which was annoying. I mean, it wasn't too boring I guess. Rockruff was actually pretty fun to talk to, though it was weird that I could understand him and humans couldn't. We were both pokemon weren't we?

"So uhh, Rockruff. Why can't humans understand you? Your friend the professor guy can understand me just fine. That's weird right?"

Rockruff turned to me, his usual excited expression not changing despite my question. "Oh that? I dunno. Never really thought of it before. It's like that for most pokemon here." He replied, sitting down. "So where did you come from?"

"Oh I uhh... Well. You probably wouldn't recognize it. It's pretty far away." I replied, tapping my foot impatiently and staring at the door. "Man, this is getting boring. That professor guy is too slow. I should just look for them myself."

"All by yourself?" Rockruff turned to the door. "But the professor said to stay here. You could get lost."

I shrugged. "My friends are lost too. I've gotta find them. I was hoping the professor guy could help me, but he's taking too long." I sighed, staring at the door a bit longer.

Suddenly there was a soft knock at the door. "Hello? Professor Kukui? Are you home?" Someone asked from the other side of the door.

"Ooh! Something to do!" I exclaimed, jumping off the couch a bit too eagerly and rushing over to the door. I might've been acting a bit desperate, but I hated sitting still and doing nothing for more than half an hour.

Rockruff followed soon after. "It's probably one of the students from the pokemon school."

"Ugh. School? Sounds boring to me." I commented, giving him a tired look for emphasis. "I'm all about adventure."

Rockruff just stared at me as if he didn't know how to respond. Instead of dragging the conversation out any longer, I poked at the square opening beneath the door with my paw. To my surprise, it was actually some sort of smaller door. "Huh..."

"Oh. That's the door the professor built for me so I can get out when he isn't here." Rockruff explained.

"Oh..." I shrugged before walking through it. On the other side, there was another human. This one I guessed was female due to the long hair and white dress...and her voice. That too.

Once she noticed me, she flinched back. "Oh! I didn't know the professor had an eevee." She smiled. "Wow. You're pretty cute."

I frowned. I knew it was a complement, but part of me just couldn't help but feel annoyed by it. "Well I prefer awesome, but that works too... Oh wait." I paused. "Forgot I wasn't supposed to talk... Oh well." I smiled carelessly.

Oddly, she didn't seem too surprised by my sudden speech. "You can talk too?" She asked me as if she had heard a pokemon talk before.

"Aww man. You don't look surprised at all." I sighed, faking a face of disappointment. "Have you heard a pokemon talk before or something?

"Oh, uhh. A few I guess..." She looked down awkwardly, only for her attention to snap back to me a second later. "Oh wait! Are you maybe friends with this other eevee? She said her name was Lisa."

She caught my attention at the mention of her name. "You saw Lisa?! Where?!" I probably sounded a bit desperate, but I couldn't help it.

She flinched at my sudden outburst. "Oh. Well my friend Ash and I found her at the pokemon school. She was looking for her friends, so I came to get Professor Kukui's help."

"Awesome! Can you show me where?!" I asked her impatiently.

She looked ready to reply, but a familiar voice from behind stopped her. "Why hello there Lillie. I see you've met Eve." The professor waved as he walked up to her with more groceries. He eyed me suspiciously. "You weren't planning on leaving before I got back were you?"

I shrugged. "And what if I was?"

He chuckled. "Guess you got me there. So Lillie, what brings you here? Something to do with our new friend perhaps?"

"Oh. Ash and I found a talking eevee at the pokemon school, so I came here to get your help. I was kind of worried you wouldn't believe me, but I guess I was worried for nothing."

The professor looked pensive. "Eve, you said you didn't live around here correct? Did you perhaps mean that you live in another world?"

I nodded. "Yeah. How did you figure that out?"

He crossed his arms. "There have been studies about the possibility of worlds outside our own. And of course the sudden arrival of a group of talking pokemon is certainly a good hint. Is it not?"

"Oh uhh, yeah. Heheh..." I smiled nervously. "Anyway! Can you show me where Lisa is Lillie?"

She nodded. "Ash said he was going to help her search for you too. They should be in the city by now."

"Great! Let's go!" I exclaimed, walking up to her and hopping onto her shoulder. "Off to the city!"

She flinched. "R-right!"

The professor laughed. "Weren't you over your fear of touching pokemon?"

She turned her nose up at his question. "I am! She just startled me... That's all."

The professor chuckled. "Well as much as I'd like to join you two, I've got other things to attend to. Perhaps I'll see you later." He waved before entering the house.

Lillie looked to me. "So Eve. What's your world like?"

"Well... Kind of like this one I guess, but there aren't any humans. At least, in human form."

She looked surprised. "No humans? Huh..." She replied as we made our way towards the city.

* * *

**Hau'oli City:**

"Hau'oli City? Sounds weird." I frowned, staring at a sign. "Are all the towns and cities named like this?"

Lillie nodded. "I guess it's weird for some. The names are normal for most who live on the four islands of Alola."

"Alola? That's a cool name I guess. Are there any cool places to explore on these islands?" I asked, tearing my gaze away from the sign to look at Lillie. This place was starting to look like a great destination to explore. After finding Lisa of course. Maybe we'd come back after all this time stuff cooled down.

She looked puzzled. "Explore? Well there are a lot of pokemon trainers who like to go on their own pokemon journeys, so I guess so."

"Hmm... Ooh! Is that a beach?!" I asked, nearly falling off of her shoulder in excitement. I could only hope my tail wasn't slapping Lillie in the face from how much it was involuntarily moving.

"Oh the beach?" She nodded. "That's Hau'oli Beach. I'm guessing you're a fan of beaches?"

I beamed with excitement. "Yep! In my world there's this awesome beach where krabby blow bubbles. When the sunlight shines through them, it looks so pretty." I explained. "Really, I just like the warm sand though."

"Oh. That sounds nice." Lillie smiled. "Your world sounds wonderful."

I was about to reply, but a familiar snivy caught my eye and I gasped. He was wandering the streets with another eevee, though I couldn't say I recognized them. "Hey! It's Alex! Over there Lillie! That's my boyfriend!"

She flinched, but nodded. "Right! Wait, you have a boyfriend?"

I passed her a questioning look. "Yeah. What about it? Never seen an eevee with a boyfriend?" I asked, ignoring her obvious answer.

She shook her head. "Never mind. Let's go then." She replied before heading off in Alex's direction.

Once we reached him, I jumped off Lillie's shoulder and tackled him to the ground. "Alex!" I exclaimed, nuzzling his cheek with my own.

"Eve?!" He asked with a slight chuckle. "Whelp. Guess we found you then."

I pulled back. "Hmm?" Looking around, I noticed the eevee he was with hadn't left. Instead, he was staring at me with just about as much enthusiasm as I had tackled Alex with. "Oh. So you made a friend."

The purple eyed eevee frowned. "Come on Eve. Don't tell me you don't recognize me."

I tilted my head. "Should I?" I asked him. I didn't think I had ever seen this guy before. He looked a bit older than me, and I think I'd remember if I had seen an eevee with really spiky fur on his head. I didn't even think that was possible.

"Hmm... Well maybe you'll remember after I do this." He quickly raised his paw before ruffling the fur atop my head, quite to my annoyance.

"Wha?! Hey! Paws off the-!" I paused, giving him a second look. Something about that was oddly familiar. "Wait... Cyrus?"

He smiled. "That's me. Nice to see ya again sis."

"Sis?" I paused again. "You're my brother?" I frowned, looking him up and down for a moment. "Yeah right. I'll admit, it's weird that I know your name, but Luke's my brother. Mom didn't say anything about a Cyrus."

His smile turned into a frown. "She didn't huh?" He sighed. "Well, that's understandable I guess... But I am your brother Eve."

I cast him a suspicious look. "Ok... If you're my brother, how come I don't remember you?" This didn't make any sense. I mean, it didn't make any sense with Luke either, but this made even less sense.

"Oh! I guess I should explain. You and Ally were only three when I left on my own. I only really expected you to remember my name." He explained. "By the way, how's Luke doing? I haven't seen him since he was a baby."

I just blinked. "You saw Luke when he was a baby?"

He nodded. "Mom told you about how Luke was hidden right? I paid him a visit before I left on my journeys. I knew Wigglytuff was strong, but I had to make sure my little bro was safe."

At this point I just gave up on not believing him. Either he was telling the truth, or he was just delusional. I chose the nicer option. "Ok fine. I believe you. But... Why didn't Mom tell us about you? I get why she hid Luke from us, but..." I was suddenly interrupted by Cyrus ruffling my fur again.

"Hey. Don't be thinking anything negative about our mother now." He said as if to scold me. "It's complicated, but she had a good reason. I'm sure of it." His excited smile returned. "You know about me now, so what's the harm?"

I shrugged. "Guess you're right. What are you doing in this world though? Isn't this a bit far?"

He laughed. "Never really thought about that, but I guess so. Anyway." He placed his paw on my head again. I expected him to ruffle my fur again, but he didn't. He just let his paw sit there for a moment, which I'll admit was at least a little better than my fur having to be pet down again. "We need to talk about a couple things."

I nodded. "Alright, but can it wait? I really need to find Lisa."

"Lisa?" His eyes lit up curiously. "Who's Lisa?"

"Hmm? Oh, she's this awesome kid. She likes exploring and stuff just like I do. I was talking with Alex earlier about adopting her and..." I paused, realizing I had probably said too much. I wasn't sure how comfortable Alex was with talking about this publicly, so hopefully he didn't get mad. "Yeah umm... Can we just forget about that part?"

Cyrus laughed. "It's ok. I get it." He winked. "Won't say a thing."

"Great! Thank you! Anyway." I turned back to Lillie. "Hey Lillie! Didn't you say your friend was supposed to be somewhere in the city?" I asked. "Oh, by the way. Alex, Cyrus. This is my new friend Lillie."

"Oh. Well that was only a guess. He might've went somewhere else, but if we keep looking I'm sure we'll find him." She replied. "Oh. And it's nice to meet you two."

"Right!" I exclaimed. "Let's find Lisa quick! She's probably worried about us." The others nodded as we proceeded further into the city.

* * *

**1 Hour Later, Cyrus' POV:**

Overall, I was kind of surprised by how well that situation played out. I had expected at least some yelling. "Man. I really thought Eve was gonna hate me. That's such a relief." I sighed, whispering to Alex.

He looked at me like I was joking. "Eve? Hate someone? You two really need to have some catch up time." He laughed.

"Well... I guess so." I sighed. "But seriously. I haven't seen her in seventeen years and she just accepts me." I looked down at the pavement guiltily as we walked. "Even though I've just been hiding in another world while my family needs help."

"Eve doesn't think about that stuff though." Alex replied.

I tore my gaze from the pavement and looked up at him. "Hmm?"

"Eve just wants to help others. She won't dwell on their mistakes." He continued. "In any case, you should talk this out with her. I may be her boyfriend, but I don't know how she thinks."

I nodded, glancing over at her for a second before deciding to change the subject. "About that kid you're trying to find. Lisa. Are you guys really going to adopt her?"

Alex nodded. "I'm not so sure how it'll work out though. For me at least. I don't know how good I am with kids to be honest." He replied, crossing his arms in thought. "I'm not sure about a lot of things."

I smiled. "Eh. You'll get it eventually. One thing's for sure though. My mom's gonna flip when she hears about it."

"Yeah. I figured as much." Alex replied nervously. I probably shouldn't have said anything...

"Not that she won't understand!" I followed up quickly. "I'm sure you'll be fine. Eheheh..."

A moment of awkward silence passed before I spoke again. "By the way. Have you noticed any...odd abilities from Eve?"

He passed me a look of confusion. "Odd abilities? Well, she's certainly gotten a bit stronger, but I don't know if that counts as odd or not."

"How much stronger?" I followed up quickly.

He seemed to think on it a bit. "Well, she seems perfectly capable of putting decently sized craters in the ground and taking out tough opponents. I honestly thought that was some kind of scary adrenaline rush though."

I shook my head. "That's no adrenaline rush. Looks like I'll have to explain quick."

"What exactly do you need to explain?" He asked, his crossed arms and curious tone making him sound impatient despite his calm composure.

"Well... It's complicated. I should really wait for a calmer setting to explain everything."

He seemed to get what I meant and didn't pursue further. Thank goodness... I wasn't prepared at all.

It was then that Eve slowed down a bit to walk by my side. She seemed as happy as ever, despite being in some unknown world and learning she had yet another brother she wasn't told about. Then again, I suppose that was a good thing.

"Hey bro! Can I call you that? Great! Ya know, it's kinda weird that I'm just meeting you now, but I guess it's cool that I have a big brother now!" She spoke fast, with just about the happiest smile I'd ever seen on an eevee.

"Yeah. A selfish, coward of a brother who couldn't even show up to see you grow up..." I muttered.

"What was that?" She frowned, giving me a concerned look.

I shook my head, faking a smile. "It's nothing! Don't worry about it. So, how long have you known Alex?"

Her frown turned to a look of confusion. "Huh. Well... I don't really know actually. It's been so weird back home that I haven't really noticed how long it's been." She laughed. "Maybe a month or something."

Something about the way she spoke made me chuckle. "Well you two certainly are quite the odd couple."

She tilted her head. "Huh? How so?"

I shook my head with yet another chuckle. "You know. Cause he's so calm and level headed and you're so hyper and unpredictable."

She just stared at me for a moment before smiling again. "Oh yeah! That's just because I like smart guys. Alex is really smart and he tells me all this cool stuff. Plus he's super sweet and always puts up with me running off and stuff. He even got me this bow." She took off her fedora, pointing to the rainbow colored bow pinned near the top.

"Oh yeah. I've been meaning to ask you about that. Where'd you get that hat? It looks good on you." I complemented her. Honestly it looked a bit familiar, but I couldn't quite figure out where I'd seen it before.

"My fedora? Lucario gave it to me. Cool huh?" She tossed it up in the air where it landed perfectly on her head. How was she so good at holding things?

"You're really good at holding things with your paws. Is that some sort of talent or something?"

She shrugged. "I dunno. Never really noticed. Can't everyone do this?" She asked, taking the hat off again and holding it by the tip with one paw.

I shook my head. "You're one odd eevee."

She smiled. "I know!"

"Eve!" Someone shouted from the crowd in front of us. Before anyone could react, Eve was suddenly tackled to the ground by a smaller eevee seemingly coming out of nowhere.

Eve grunted as she hit the ground, but still kept up her smile. "Ugh... Heya Lisa! What took ya so long huh?"

The young eevee giggled, nuzzling Eve's mane. "Sorry. I got held up at the pokemon school. I even made some friends!"

She chuckled, hugging the smaller eevee. "Oh really? That's great!"

"Lisa! Wait up will ya?!" Someone else yelled, sounding exhausted. Seconds later a human boy ran up before bending over and panting from exhaustion. "Man you're fast..."

Lisa jumped up and spun around towards the boy. "Oh! Sorry Ash! I was just excited that's all." She smiled. "Hey guys. This is my new friend Ash. Ash, this is Eve. Oh! And that's Alex."

Ash looked up and smiled. "Heh. Nice ta meet ya! This is my partner pikachu." He motioned to the pikachu perched on his shoulder.

Pikachu waved. "Nice ta meet ya both!"

I waved back. "And I'm Cyrus. Eve's older brother. It's nice to meet you Lisa."

Lisa seemed surprised. "Eve has an older brother? But I thought she only had a little brother." She replied, sounding rather well informed for a ten year old.

"It's a little complicated honestly. I'll explain later." I turned to Eve. "So Eve. Now that we've found Lisa, we should really get to what I've been trying to talk to you about."

"Hmm? Oh yeah! That!" She smiled. "Sure thing! What is it?"

I shuffled my paws nervously, looking around at the crowd of people still passing us by. "I can't exactly tell you here. We need to find some place that isn't overly crowded."

She nodded. "Ok! Lead the way then."

* * *

**Forest Clearing, Eve's POV:**

Cyrus stopped once we reached a clearing in the forest. "Alright. This is far enough." He spun around energetically. "No one should be able to see us here."

"Yeah, Cyrus. About that. What exactly are we here to do? Why do we have to hide?" I mean, it was kinda weird that he needed to take us all out into the middle of a forest just to tell us something.

Cyrus sighed. "Let me answer that with a question. Eve, have you ever noticed any odd abilities. Like weird things that you're able to do that don't make sense?"

I frowned. "Uhh, well yeah I guess. My punches do feel a bit stronger and there was that time where I threw that weird sphere thingy and it blew up, but I've never really put too much thought into it. Why?"

He seemed to pause for a bit. "It's...complicated to say the least..."

I just blinked, tapping my foot impatiently. "Well come on Cyrus. What is it?"

He looked at me reluctantly, before sighing once more. "The people of Centura, the wizard world, tell stories of a dangerous and unstable power that wreaked havoc upon Oracion, our world, in ancient times. The origin of the power varies from story to story, but a common thread throughout all of them seems to be that the holder of this power had pink eyes, and could create earthquakes with a single blow to the ground. That same power is leaking out of you as we speak."

I took a nervous step back, just staring at him. "What are you talking about? Mom said I don't have any powers. She said I was the only one who didn't inherit anything. Do you just expect me to believe that she was lying?!"

He shook his head. "Our mom didn't know. That power has been sealed inside of you from the day you were born. I don't know what caused the seal to loosen, but you do have it."

I shook my head, taking another step back and closing my eyes tightly. "You're lying! Whatever this dangerous power is, I don't have it. It's just some ancient thing from a long time ago. How would you even know?!" I yelled at him, refusing to listen any longer.

There was a long pause before anything else was said. "Oh yeah?" I heard Cyrus say before I felt someone grab my paw. "Then open your eyes and look around Eve! Prove me wrong!" His voice sounded much more serious than earlier.

I reluctantly opened my eyes and was immediately assaulted with a barrage of leaves to the face. I tried cleaning them off, thinking it was just Cyrus pulling a prank, only to realize that I was surrounded by a cyclone of leaves. From how green they were, I could tell they had just been ripped away from the surrounding trees. The ground under my feet seemed to have shifted, and my fur felt like it was soaking wet. "What?! W-what's going on?! Cyrus?!" I was about to panic until I realized he was still holding my paw.

"Eve, just calm down! It'll stop if you do. Just think of somet-"

Suddenly the thought of having wet fur entered my mind and I froze. I frowned as the leaf cyclone dissipated, effectively cutting Cyrus off. "Aww man! My fur's all messed up!" I whined, looking back at my soggy, muddy tail along with the rest of my fur. "Now I need a bath." I sulked, not even caring about whatever just happened.

Cyrus just blinked. "Heh... Well I guess that's one way to do it..."


	20. Control!

* * *

_"The journey of control is a long one. Trial upon trial will ravage the soul and erode the body. Only those alight with gritty determination may see it through."_

* * *

Confusion was all I felt. Well, that and the feeling that I was like a walking mop, but that's beside the point. Cyrus had given me some space to calm down, while the others had gone off with the humans to find Grovyle and Celebi. Meanwhile, I was left alone trying to piece together what exactly I had just done.

It didn't feel normal. It felt like all of my energy had just exploded out of my body at once. Like the kind of feeling you get when you loudly vent your frustrations, except with a chaotic twist that ends up trashing part of the woods and giving you a splitting headache. And to think I used to find the idea of chaos fun. Word of advice: It's not! Or at least for whatever the heck that was.

I sighed, hopping off the log that I had been calling 'comfortable' for the past thirty-five minutes or so and decided to look for Cyrus. He said he'd explain everything once I was ready or whatever, but I was too distracted by the fact that I had some super important ancient power that nobody told me about. Who even put that seal on me in the first place? A magic seal. On a baby no less! Who thought that was a good idea?

I found Cyrus not too far away, standing in the center of another clearing. This one was wider, and there weren't any downed trees or stray tree stumps. It was actually kind of beautiful. There were less trees in this clearing, so more sunlight was allowed to reach the ground. The ground itself was covered in a wide variety of wildflowers, and the grass was a vibrant green. The whole place smelled fresh and peaceful. It was enough to lighten my mood a bit.

It seemed that Cyrus had already noticed me by the time I entered the clearing, considering he turned around and smiled at me before I even had a chance to call out his name. "Hey Eve! Feeling better?" He called out in his usual cheery voice. I don't think the guy ever stopped sounding cheery since the moment I met him. Then again, Ally said the same thing about me.

I shrugged, making my way towards him. "I've been better I guess, but I do like this clearing. Reminds me of that big field near treasure town that I go to all the time to relax. Or train. It's where I met Lisa."

He nodded, motioning for me to sit. "That Lisa kid. She really admires you, doesn't she?" He asked with a chuckle. "I mean, I guess it's good that the kid you want to adopt looks up to you, but are you sure you know what you're doing?"

I shook my head. "I'm not sure if I know what I'm doing, but I am sure that I can't let Lisa down. I'll do whatever it takes to make her happy."

Cyrus smiled. "Good! I guess I can mark motivational speech off my checklist!" He chuckled. "So... About those ancient powers. Again, it has nothing to do with Mom. Trust me. She'd never lie about something like this. She was just as clueless as you were."

I nodded. "I trust you. I just got a bit overwhelmed back there. That's all." I reassured him. As crazy as all of this was, I didn't want Cyrus to think that this was his fault. After all, he did help me calm down from that meltdown. "So! What first? I mean, you said I had some kind of ancient powers, and a seal was holding them back? I think that seal is probably broken now, so how do I go about controlling this stuff?

Cyrus sighed and stood up, looking around nervously, as if he were expecting someone to be listening in on our conversation. Come to think of it, he did that a lot. Not that I didn't trust him, but it did make me wonder if something was wrong.

He seemed to notice my concern and quickly refocused his attention on me. "Sorry! Heheh..." He paused, seemingly to collect his thoughts. "Well, if you want to do that, then you're going to need to know what you're actually controlling."

I gave him a blank look. "What I'm actually controlling? Come on Cyrus, what does that mean? Isn't it just some ancient magic or something?" At this point I could only make guess work, but I had to admit that I had no idea what any of this magic stuff meant. Even Mom's explanations seemed vague to me. Austin and Ally seemed to get it, but it just didn't make sense to me.

He sighed. "Eve, I really don't want to ask you something like this. Especially since you just went through all of that craziness back there, but could you keep what I'm about to tell you a secret?" His eyes widened considerably in what looked like a short panic. "Not forever or anything! Just until everything settles down."

I didn't know how long that actually meant, but something about this seemed to really scare him. "I... guess I can keep it a secret, but can I at least tell Alex? If something bad happens, he'll need to know."

Cyrus seemed to calm down a bit. "Oh... Well I guess I can't really ask you to keep a secret from your boyfriend." He nodded. "Either way, we don't have much time."

"Right! Explain away bro!" I sat down, looking at him expectantly.

That seemed to get him to laugh a bit. "Alright, well like I said. If you want to control your powers, you're going to need to know what you're actually controlling. That being said, first things first." Cyrus sat down as well, holding one of his fore paws out in front of his body, the paw pad part facing the sky. "Watch closely" He instructed

At the moment I didn't get what he meant, but I paid close attention to his paw regardless. Seconds later, something slightly familiar started to form above his paw. Multicolored swirls of some sort of energy started to accumulate above his paw, forming into what looked like a rotating sphere. Once the sphere was big enough, the energy seemed to shoot out in ribbons, spinning with the movement of the sphere, although a bit slower. The formation of whatever Cyrus just made seemed to be accompanied by a faint, low humming noise.

I didn't look away from the sphere even when Cyrus spoke. "From that look on your face, I can tell that you've seen this before. Did you maybe create something like this once, Eve?"

"Hmm?" I shook myself out of my trance and looked up at him. "Oh uhm, yeah. It happened when I was showing Lisa how to form a shadow ball in her paw. What is it?"

Cyrus nodded and looked towards the sphere. "This is what I call a Mage Sphere. I'd show you what it does, but somehow I have a feeling that you've already seen the aftermath of that." He chuckled.

I chuckled nervously, remembering that I still hadn't paid Treasure Town back for the damage to that field. "You could say that I guess... So! What is it? Some awesome magic attack or something?!"

Cyrus shook his head. "What you're seeing here isn't magic. In fact, magic doesn't even exist in our world. This is a combination of aura and something that isn't commonly known by its true name."

Once he said that, I froze. "Wait...what? Magic doesn't exist? But what about-"

"Everything you've seen that you think is magic isn't what it seems. Or at least, it's a misunderstanding." Cyrus paused, taking a moment to dispel the Mage Sphere. "It makes sense to most people as magic because that's what it seems to be. And it is something similar, but I can assure you that there are important differences that you need to know."

I frowned. "Alright, well what is it called then? And what are the differences?"

Cyrus nodded. "What you've been calling magic this entire time is actually tiny reality manipulating particles known as zion. They exist inside the cells of our bodies, and presumably the cores of planets in our universe."

I was confused right off the bat. This was already way more complicated than anything Mom ever told me. "Wait. What do you mean by particles?"

Cyrus nodded with a small chuckle. "I figured I was going too fast. Sorry Eve." He sighed. "When you think about the particles, try thinking about a grain of sand, but way smaller than that. Zion particles are incredibly small. Microscopic even. They move around in your cells without causing harm after all." Cyrus checked to see if I understood before moving on. "Another thing. Zion exists inside of everyone in our world. Not just "wizards". The reason everyone can't use it is due to how zion works. For it to be active, it needs to be moving, and for those who can't use it, their zion is inactive. It doesn't move. That's why the phenomenon commonly known as "transent wizards" exists. Sometimes a zion user can activate the zion of someone else. This usually happens with a strong positive relationship, so zion spreads especially well during times of peace."

"So transent wizards are a thing? At least I don't have to throw away everything I learned...but how do we do spells and stuff if the zion particles are inside of us?" I'll admit, I still hadn't completely grasped the concept, but at least something familiar popped up in Cyrus' explanation.

Cyrus nodded. "Well as I said before, zion is a reality manipulating particle. For spells that affect our bodies, like teleportation or transformation spells, our zion does just that. It manipulates our bodies, but for spells that affect the environment around us..." Cyrus held out his paw again. "For instance, if I were to create another Mage Sphere, the zion particles in the cells of my paw would leave and collect outside of my body where they'd manifest as the swirling energy you saw earlier. And that's just for an energy spell like the Mage Sphere. If you wanted to create an object, like say an apple." Just as he said that, and apple appeared above his paw. "The zion particles would still leave, but they wouldn't manifest as energy. Instead, they'd simply bend reality a bit to create the apple. Also, a bit of a note on that. Don't use it on a sold product, like a hat or bow. It's much easier for zion to create something organic than something made from organic materials, so it could just as easily rip one away from a merchant instead. You'd be stealing." He warned, tossing the apple to me. "Lastly, never combine zion with aura unless it's with the Mage Sphere. Aura reacts rather explosively with zion, and it's rather unpredictable. The Mage Sphere's rotation is the only thing keeping the two from mixing and exploding in your face."

I nodded. "Not sure if I'm going to remember all of that, but I'll try! I have more questions too. Mom made things a bit confusing with how she described stuff to Ally, but I suppose that can wait. So, what now?"

Cyrus chuckled. "Hmm... Let's see. I could have you try to hold a Mage sphere steady for thirty minutes, or I could teach you how to teleport. Which do y-"

"I wanna teleport! Teach me please! Come on Cyrus!" I nearly begged him. The Mage Sphere was cool and all, don't get me wrong, but teleportation was something I've always wanted to do.

He smiled. "I thought you might say that. That's why I'm going to teach you my special teleportation technique. Well, that and it'll help you get a feel for how you should control your zion. Either way." He held out his paw once more as another apple appeared above it. "Observe." With that, Cyrus took the apple and tossed it at a nearby tree. Once the apple hit the tree, he disappeared, reappearing at the tree with his paw planted on the spot the apple hit.

The act happened so quickly, I thought that I had blinked and missed it. "Woah! Cyrus, how'd you do that?!"

He chuckled, taking his time to respond as he retrieved the apple, now slightly bruised from its impact with the tree. "I could tell you, but I think you'll learn much faster if you try it yourself. Now." He held the apple out in front of himself. "Do you remember the feeling you got when you lost control of your powers?"

"The feeling? Oh! It felt sort of like all my energy just exploded out of me. I'm still feeling a bit tired now that ya mention it." I yawned. "Why?"

He tossed the apple into the air for emphasis. "Great! Now try focusing that feeling into your paw. The key to this technique is being able to spread some of your zion to an object and, by extension, a target. In this case, the object is an apple, and the target is a tree. Once you pull off step one, I'll explain the rest. Go ahead and give it a shot."

I frowned, looking down at my own apple. So, this is why he gave me this... "So, I'm supposed to send my zion into this apple?" I asked for confirmation, trying to remember how it felt.

He nodded. "Try not to think too much. If you overthink it or strain yourself, you'll reach a dead end. Something tells me you won't have that problem though."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked just as a strange light entered my vision. I looked to the apple to find it glowing a faint pink. "Wait. What did I do?" I pondered, examining the apple from all sides.

"Just now? Looks like you got it down, and quicker than I thought." Cyrus gave me a congratulatory smile. He looked like he was really enjoying this, and I didn't want to rain on his parade, so I decided not to ask about it.

Still, I was just as confused. "Wait." I turned back to Cyrus. "What do you mean I've got it down? It's glowing. Your apple didn't glow."

Cyrus seemed oddly familiar with that question. "That's true, but you don't have nearly as much experience controlling your zion as I do. It's only natural that you wouldn't be able to release it without some unintended effects. In your case, it looks like that effect was the glow you see."

"Oh... Well I guess I've got to throw it then!" I smiled, tossing the apple at the same tree Cyrus had used moments before. The apple bounced off the tree harmlessly and rolled to a stop near Cyrus' feet. "Now what?"

Cyrus glanced at the apple and back at me. "Great! Now try focusing on the tree, particularly the spot where the apple hit it. Then-"

"I just have to release the zion again right? Awesome!" I cut him off, already focusing on the task.

"Wait what? No, Eve!" I heard Cyrus exclaim before a bright flash entered my vision, accompanied by the sound of wind. I wasn't sure what Alex experience during his visions or whatever, but I think I passed out too.

* * *

**Hau'oli City Beachfront:**

I woke to the sound of waves and the feeling of someone poking my side. Whoever it was, their touch felt slightly cold and wet. "Hey. Wake up. Come on now... Please?" I heard someone call to me, sounding worried. "Oh no. Please don't be..."

"Mmm?" I opened my eyes a bit, only to come face to face with a seemingly panicked brionne. "Oh! Uhm... hi?"

Once I spoke, the brionne's expression turned from one of panic, to one of joy. "You're ok! Thank goodness!" She sighed. "You really gave me a scare there. What were you doing swimming out so far anyway?"

"Swimming? I, uhh... I wasn't swimming." I didn't know what had happened, but I was sure I hadn't gone swimming. "Can you uhh... please get off me?" I asked, blushing with embarrassment.

The brionne seemed surprised. "Huh? Oh! Right, sorry!" She apologized, quickly moving out of the way so I could sit up.

I quickly sat up, looking around at my fur. It was a mess. All matted up and full of sand. I sighed. That's going to take a while to fix... "So uhh... Who're you?" I asked, facing the brionne again.

She looked surprised but didn't hesitate to respond. "My name's Bree. Sorry about the sand by the way." She motioned to my messed-up fur. "Once I pulled you out of the water, I had to drag you the rest of the way. I'm not as good on land as I am in the water."

I looked over at her tail fin, which I remembered seeing before in a fairy tale book about a brionne that my mom used to read me. "I guess I can see why." I chuckled. "Don't worry about my fur. I'll fix it up later. Anyway, nice to meet ya Bree! I'm Eve!" I smiled. "Wait, did you say you pulled me out of the water?"

Bree nodded. "I found you floating in the water way out there." She pointed out to sea. "I was worried that you might've drowned, but it looks like you're just fine."

I looked out to sea. Had that spell really launched me that far? If so, I must've messed up big time. "Ahh. Well, th-" I was about to thank Bree, but then in a brown blur Cyrus sped past, nearly knocking me to the ground just to make what I assumed was his "move". Unfortunately for Bree, Cyrus' move seemed to involve more personal space invasion than actual flirting. Seriously, didn't Mom ever teach him how to flirt?

"Say... What's a beautiful lady like yourself doing out here this fine evening? What do ya say we find a spot to relax? Maybe watch the sunset?" Cyrus bombarded her with sweet talk, all while Bree looked at him like he was crazy.

I sighed, grabbing Cyrus by the ear and pulling him away from her. "Geez Cyrus. You'd think you'd be more worried about your sister who just went missing than the pretty girl you don't even know. Didn't Mom ever teach you manners? Looks like I'll have to do it for her."

"Oww! Oww! Eve! Come on! It was just a little joke. I didn't mean-oww!" He tried to defend himself as I dragged him through the sand.

I stopped soon after and gave him a judgmental look. "Yeah? Well maybe you should save your flirting for when it's appropriate."

Bree giggled, seemingly unfazed by the whole exchange. "You two are funny. Are you siblings?"

I sighed, giving Cyrus a look that said, 'this isn't over'. "Oh uhh. Yeah. Bree, this is my brother Cyrus. Cyrus, this is Bree." Cyrus waved.

Bree smiled. "Well it's nice to meet both of you. By the way, are you two new here? I don't think I've seen you around before."

I nodded. "Well, I guess I am at least. Cyrus has been here for a while, but I just got here with my friends. We're explorers."

Bree's smile turned to a look of excitement. "Ooh! Explorers?! I don't think I've ever met explorers. Well, at least the pokemon kind. Pokemon trainers probably count, but I've never seen pokemon explorers. Have you ever done anything really exciting?"

I was a bit surprised at her enthusiasm, but I nodded nonetheless. "Of course! We've done a lot of exciting stuff! Like right now actually. Seeing Alola is pretty exciting for us."

Bree nodded. "Alola is nice. I can see why you'd like it. How long are you guys staying?"

I frowned. "Hmm... I'm not sure really. We kind of just showed up. No real schedule in mind." With that, my mind wandered back to the others. They'd probably already found Grovyle and Celebi by now. We should probably meet up with them. "Well it was nice meeting you Bree, but we've gotta meet up with our friends. Maybe we'll see you later though." Cyrus and I turned around, heading towards the meet up point.

* * *

**Bree's POV:**

They were leaving already? I felt a bit awkward, not really knowing what to do as they got further and further away. I slumped back, a slight feeling of disappointment seeping in. I had hoped that they might ask me to join them, but...

I looked up. Cyrus and Eve had gotten even further away. I sighed. "...No. If they won't ask me, then I'm just going to have to ask them instead." I spoke aloud, trying to hype myself up. The two were still walking along the beach, so I took a chance and hurried back into the ocean. Once I was deep enough, I swam along the coast in their direction. "I promised I'd go on an adventure again. I can't let them get away."

Once I was sure I was close enough to the exit of the beach, I changed directions, shooting straight out of the water towards the beach. I spotted them to my side as I went airborne, which proved to be short lived as I crashed into the sand below. The impact knocked the breath out of my lungs as I laid there defeated and in pain. That is until I heard footsteps heading in my direction.

"Bree?! Are you ok?! What happened?!" I heard Eve's voice call to me as she helped me up.

I groaned as she did so. I guess it was effective, but in hindsight I probably should've just swam back to shore and called out their names. "I... I-yeah. I'm fine..." I choked out between coughs.

Eve silenced me. "Just breathe. We'll talk in just a minute." She instructed, checking me over to make sure I was ok.

I nodded, taking a moment to recover. Once I had my breathing back under control, I relaxed a bit. "Thanks Eve. Sorry for the scare." I apologized, rubbing my right arm sheepishly.

She shook it off. "Yeah no. Don't worry about it. Why'd you do that anyway? Is something wrong?"

I sighed. "Well I kind of wanted you to ask me to join you, but you didn't, so..."

Eve frowned. "You wanted me to ask you to join us?" She chuckled. "Well why didn't you just ask earlier? Of course, you can!"

I looked at her, surprised. "Wait, I can?! You'll just let me?!" Of course, I didn't exactly know what I was getting myself into, but Eve seemed really nice.

She shrugged. "Why the heck not? Oh! We do come from a pretty far off place though, so you might not be able to come back here for quite some time. Are you sure you want to come with us?"

They were from somewhere that far away? Well, I guess I sort of figured, but... No. I need to go with them. I didn't beat myself up just to back down now... Seriously, that hurt. "Yes. I'm sure. I really want to go on an adventure with you."

Eve smiled. "Well alright then! Welcome to Team Eviolite!" She exclaimed. "I'd give you an initiation or register you in my badge or something, but we're sort of in a hurry and I think Cyrus just left me behind. Meet up spot is pretty far away too... Need any help?"

I shook my head. "I can keep up! Don't worry about me."

Eve nodded, turning around. "Well we're going to have to move pretty fast."

"Way ahead of you!" I exclaimed, breathing in deeply before exhaling quickly through my nose. Pretty soon a rather large bubble formed at the tip of my nose. "Bubbles are my specialty. Even if mine touch the ground, they don't pop, so I can use this to move faster on land." I explained as I lowered the bubble to the sand and stepped inside.

"You can make water bubbles that don't pop? That's so cool!" Eve exclaimed. Either way, we should be going. Follow me." Eve instructed as she started off for the beach's exit.

"Ok!" I placed both flippers on the bubble, using my weight to spin it. Just as I expected, it was fast enough to keep up with Eve. I placed my flippers up against the bubble once more, preparing to do it again. The bubble bent around them slightly, but it didn't pop. I kept the action up as we exited the beach.

* * *

**Professor Kukui's Lab:**

Eve led me to some sort of human building just outside of the city. It didn't seem like anyone was there, until a smaller eevee jumped out of nowhere and tackled Eve to the ground. "Eve! You're back!" The eevee exclaimed through giggles, nuzzling her cheek against Eve's.

Eve laughed aloud, hugging onto the smaller eevee. "Heheh. Hey Lisa! Where's Alex?" Eve asked Lisa, rubbing her head. Lisa pointed towards the building as Eve sat up, prompting her to hop onto Eve's back.

As if on cue, a snivy walked out of the building followed by Cyrus, a grovyle, and... was that a pink celebi?

"Oh, by the way. Lisa, this is my new friend Bree. She's gonna be joining the team as of now." Eve introduced me.

I gave Lisa a kind wave. "It's nice to meet you Lisa. Aren't you a cutie?"

Lisa smiled excitedly. "Nice to meet ya too!" She seemed to notice the bubble I was in as her eyes lit up. "Ooh! Is that a water bubble?! How do you keep it from popping?!"

I chuckled softly. "Well Lisa, my bubbles are a bit thicker on the outside than most brionne and popplio make their bubbles, so they can withstand much more." I explained as Lisa poked the bubble, quietly giggling to herself. "I suppose you could call them balloons too if you want."

That said, we approached the others. Cyrus seemed to have made some sort of...spinning hole in midair? Just who were these guys anyway?

The snivy looked our way he seemed puzzled when he saw me, but one look at Eve seemed to clear up that confusion. "Alright everyone! Listen up! This here is Bree. She's gonna be joining us as a new member from now on." Eve explained. "Bree, this is my boyfriend Alex." She motioned to the snivy. "And this is Grovyle and Celebi. You already know Cyrus."

The three gave a friendly wave as they were introduced. All the while I stared at the hole Cyrus had made. "Umm... If I may ask, what's that?" I asked, pointing to the circle.

Cyrus looked back at the portal. "Oh that? That's a portal. We're using it to get home."

"Oh!" Eve exclaimed, seeming to remember something important. "I almost forgot. This is another world." She chuckled. "Bree. You remember how I said we're from far away? Well I actually meant another world. Are you still ok with following us?"

Another world? That was pretty far... I didn't even think there was such thing as other worlds, but... "It's fine. I'm not gonna back down now."

Eve smiled. "Great! Alright then! Is everything ready to go Alex?"

Alex gave a confirming nod. "Everything's ready to go, everyone's here. I'd say we're ready."

Just then, a human stepped out of the building. "Certainly, you're not planning on leaving without saying goodbye, are you?"

I found it strange that a human would just walk up and speak to us, but then again, pokemon coming from another world was equally as confusing. Eve turned to face him. "Oh! Sorry professor guy! I guess we got ahead of ourselves. Where's Ash and Lilly?"

The professor chuckled. "Ash and Lilly couldn't be here, but they told me to tell you they'll see you later." He replied. "As for me, I've got something to give you." The professor reached into his pocket and pulled out some kind of brown crystal. "This is what we call eevium z. I'm not sure how much good it'll do you in your world, but I figured it'd make for quite the souvenir." He handed it to Eve. Upon closer inspection, the crystal had the image of what looked like an eevee tail inside of it.

Eve smiled gratefully. "Thanks professor guy! We'll make sure to visit again sometime."

The professor smiled once more. "Well you'll certainly be welcome here anytime. Now, I've got to get back to work. You guys get home safe ok?" He waved once more before entering the building again.

Eve placed the crystal carefully in her bag before turning to the group. "Alright, it's about time we head home. Who knows how worried the others are by now."

Everyone nodded in agreement and started entering the 'portal'. First Cyrus, then Grovyle and Celebi. As we were approaching the portal, I turned to Eve. "So, what's your world like anyway?"

"Let's see... Not too different from this one I don't think... Well, except for the humans. There aren't any humans there." She replied as we stopped in front of the portal. By then I could get a close look at the thing. It was swirling with a reflection of whatever was in front of it, kind of like what you'd get with ripples in a reflective pond.

I popped my bubble with a bit of effort. "No humans? That seems like a big difference to me."

Eve shook her head. "Don't worry. You're gonna love it. And if ya don't, I'll let you prank me. How about that?"

I chuckled. "Prank you? What's that got to do with it?" I shook my head, deciding not to question it. "Whatever. I'll just take that prank now." I replied, pushing Eve into the portal before she could respond.

I felt a bit guilty about Lisa getting caught in the crossfire, but I shook it off. "Well, here goes!" I exclaimed before leaping head first into the portal. Time to start my adventure.

* * *

**The Beach – Eve:**

"So, you don't pass out if you use that kind of portal? Why couldn't the passage of time thingy be that easy?"

Celebi frowned, crossing her arms. "Excuse me? Last time I checked, the passage of time got us out of a sticky situation. You didn't seem to have a problem with forcing me through it either."

"Except we ended up in the wrong world. Don't get me wrong, I love unexpected adventures, but it's the passage of time, not a portal to other worlds."

Celebi shrunk back awkwardly. "Oh... Yeah. Good point, I guess. Heh..."

Grovyle stepped between us. "Alright ladies, enough of that. We don't have the time to argue. We need to determine the state of time immediately."

"Alright fine." I shrugged. "Here's the plan. You and Celebi go find the time gears. Meet with the lake guardians first. Explain the situation and I'm sure they'll cooperate." I glared at Grovyle. "And Grovyle? Please resist the urge to steal them."

"Wha?!" He turned away. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Celebi looked to the grovyle curiously. "Grovyle? What's she talking about?"

"N-nothing! She's just joking."

"You went overboard, again didn't you?" She sighed. "If by some miracle we survive this, we're going to have a serious discussion about patience."

"But I- "Celebi glared at Grovyle, stopping his response before he could make it. "Fine."

"Right, well you guys get going. We'll meet up again after you've collected the time gears and then we'll move from there." I checked around for my hat, only to come up short. "Wait. Where's my hat?! Don't tell me it got lost in time!"

"Is this it here?" Bree asked, holding up my hat.

"Yes!" I excitedly snatched it out of the brionne's paws, relieved, only for a strange journal to drop out of it. "Hmm?" I plucked the book out of the warm sand and examined it. The cover had obviously seen better days. Its borders were practically shredded, and any art it may have previously hosted had long since worn away. Surprisingly, the writing was clearly visible, but I couldn't recognize the language. "What's with this book? Cyrus?"

I could feel Cyrus peer over my shoulder. "Hmm? Let me see." I passed the book to him. "Looks like Oracion Script. An outdated language from long ago." He opened the book and flipped through a few pages. "This could be important. You should hold onto it. In the meantime." Cyrus took the book and placed it inside of my hat. Once inside, it seemed to vanish. "Interesting. Your hat seems to be enchanted with some kind of Astral zi-err magic spell. There's an entire pocket dimension in there."

I raised a brow, mostly due to Cyrus nearly revealing the secret he made me keep. "A pocket dimension? What does that mean?"

"Well... That's rather complicated, but basically, it's a small, empty dimension where you can store things. You can probably enter it too if you learned a specific spell, but we can worry about that later."

"Wait. So, I can pull things out of my hat? Sweet!" I jumped with excitement, placing my hat back on my head.

"While this magic stuff sounds interesting, I'm afraid we're running out of time here. Celebi and I are heading out. You five stay alert. We'll meet up with you once we've collected the time gears." Grovyle and Celebi bid us goodbye before leaving the beach.

"Well they left in a hurry..." I sighed. "Either way. Cyrus! It's time for you to face Mom."

Cyrus froze up, his face showing that he was far from interested in the idea. "While I'd love to do that, I'd much rather do anything else."

"Cyrus..."

"What? You know how scary Mom is when she's angry. And I don't feel like facing the pink demon right now. Who knows what she'll do." Cyrus had broken into a nervous sweat, shuffling his paws around anxiously.

I rolled my eyes. "You'll be fine Cyrus... Did you just say pink demon?" I asked, probably with the dumbest grin.

"Yeah? What about it?"

"That's hilarious." I chuckled. "I can't believe I've never thought of that."

Cyrus looked amused. "Well don't give me credit. Dad taught it to me. Apparently, it's his nickname for Mom for whenever he angers her."

"No way! That's awesome!"

"Umm. Eve?" Alex called to get my attention.

"Hmm? Oh! Right." I chuckled. "Bree. Tell my brother he has to come with us."

Bree looked confused, but she didn't hesitate. "Umm. Cyrus? You have to go with us?"

"O-of course. Let's get going Eve!" I could practically hear Cyrus' defense crumble in an instant. Poor guy couldn't have been more obvious.

"Nice change of heart buddy." I smiled, about to leave the beach when I paused. "Wait. Where's Lisa?"

"Up here!" I heard a giggle as the little eevee hopped on my back. "You should pay more attention ya know?"

I frowned back at her. "Alright smarty. You keep me on track then." I teased. "Let's go everyone."

* * *

**Grace Family House:**

I don't know how we managed it, but we made our way through town without attracting attention to ourselves. Come to think of it, that might be a bad thing. These people were supposed to be searching for us. I put those thoughts away as we approached the door to our house. "Welp. This sure feels familiar..."

Cyrus shook his head. "Not to me. Last time I was with Mom and Dad, we lived in the castle. You and Ally were 2 years old I think..."

"Two years huh? Remind me to ask Mom to explain family stuff again. I'm not sure where I was at what age anymore. Anyway, Cyrus. Knock on the door."

"What? Why me?" He took a step back.

"Because I said so. Now." I pushed him up to the door. "Knock."

"Fine..." He mumbled, reaching up and knocking on the door.

A moment later, Mom answered the door. "Yes?" It looked as if it took her a moment to recognize him. She gasped, grabbing Cyrus by the shoulders and checking him over to make sure it was him. "Cyrus?! What are... You are my boy, right?"

Cyrus nodded nervously. "Yeah. It's me, Mom... I- "

Before he could finish, the sylveon embraced him in a tight hug, eyes wet with tears. "You are so grounded! Don't you ever disappear like that again!" Cyrus simply nodded and returned the hug.

"I uhh... I suppose that means I'm grounded too huh?" I asked sheepishly after they'd had their time.

Her eyes shot open at the sound of my voice. "Eve?!" The moment she saw us, she lost it. "Alright. Everyone inside now!" She exclaimed, though she sounded noticeably more relieved than angry.

We exchanged looks before following the sobbing sylveon into the house, all while feeling terrible. Once inside, she grabbed the whole lot of us with her ribbons and just held us there, crying tears of joy at our return. "You all had me worried sick! The whole town's been out searching for you for almost a year now." She moved to clean her face with one of her forelegs. "You've got a lot of explaining to do."

Other than the utterly confused Bree, the rest of us were feeling quite guilty. Though maybe not guilty enough to notice that massive time stamp she'd placed on our disappearance. "Wait. A year? We've been gone that long? How?!"

"Perhaps something went wrong when you pulled Celebi into the passage of time. We ended up arriving a year later than we were supposed to." Alex proposed.

"Oh uh, yeah. That could be it..." I chuckled nervously. "My bad..."

Mom sighed, having calmed down a bit. "In any case, I'm glad you're all back safe and sound. Though..." She looked at Bree curiously. "Did you pick up a new team member while you were gone?"

I nodded. "Mom. Meet Bree. We met her in the human world. She wanted to come with us, so we let her."

"Human world? Is that where you've been Cyrus?" She sighed. "Well in any case, it's nice to meet you Bree. I'm Ella."

Bree smiled. "Nice to meet you too. I like this world already. Pokémon in my world don't really stay with their families too often..."

Mom looked concerned. "They don't? Well then, consider yourself part of our family. We've got plenty of room here." She smiled kindly.

"Thank you, Ella. I'll keep that in mind." The brionne nodded, though I don't think she paid much attention. Her attention seemed to be occupied by her surroundings, which I suppose were quite a bit different than she was used to.

"So umm, Mom. Where are the others? Are they at the guild?" I was getting kind of antsy. I hadn't seen Ally in a long time, and I kind of missed her.

Mom shook her head. "They're out elsewhere. Your sister and Austin went out across the continent to search for you, and the others did the same in separate groups. Though if you hurry, you may be able to catch Drew and Flare before they get too far. They left for Chisel Peak yesterday."

I was kind of bummed to hear that Ally was so far away. I'd have to send her a letter. But I knew I could catch up with Drew and Flare. "Sweet! Let's go!" I exclaimed, turning towards the door.

"Not so fast young lady!" Mom cut off my path with one of her ribbons. "You're not going anywhere right now after how long you've been gone. At the very least, you owe it to me to stay here for the rest of the day. You can head after Drew and Flare tomorrow."

As much as I hated to admit it, she was right. "Alright..."

"Aww. Come on Mom. I wanted to check out the guild today." Cyrus complained.

Mom frowned. "Don't start young man. I'm tempted to keep you here for a week."

Cyrus straightened up, all signs of complaint having left him immediately. "Y-yes ma'am!"

"So, why'd Drew and Flare leave?"

Mom nodded. "Oh yes. Drew and Flare did several small searches for you around our area. They weren't going to leave on an extended search originally, but it seems they changed their minds. Flare mentioned that she wanted to research her powers, so I assume that's what they're doing."

"Flare's powers?" I smiled to myself, that mysterious journal still in mind. "Well you're right. We should stay here for the rest of the day. Cyrus, since you want to see the guild so badly, you and Bree go down there tomorrow and let everyone know that we're ok. We'd stop by ourselves, but we need to catch up to Drew and Flare as soon as possible. Plus, maybe Chatot can give Bree a rundown about how our world works. He's certainly got the brains for it."

Cyrus nodded, though he didn't seem too fond of the idea of sitting in an office and listening to a lecture. I didn't blame him. "Alright. Good luck on your side."

* * *

**The Next Day, Crossroads:**

After a long night of rest and some quick morning preparation, our small group was back at it once again. We chose to meet up at the crossroads to go over our plan once more, not that we had much of a plan at that moment. Regardless, we headed our separate ways. As usual, Lisa insisted on riding on my back. I found it kind of cute, and I guess all this extra strength I'd seemed to acquire recently because of my "mysterious powers" played a role in helping me carry the little one long distances. Still, she'd need to learn to travel like this on her own someday if she wanted to become an explorer herself.

"Your mom said Drew and Flare were headed towards Chisel Peak." Alex spoke up through the silence, eyeing the small, slightly worn parchment map while glancing back at us occasionally. It had obviously gotten harder to read after being damaged during our more eventful adventures, but Alex mentioned he was going to try adding a map feature to our new high-tech badges. He still hadn't explained how he made them, so I was determined to bother him about it until he did. "From the look of this, it shouldn't be too far. Maybe ten minutes or so if we're quick."

"When am I not quick?"

"Well there was the time with the expedition..."

"Bad example."

"Sorry." He chuckled, returning to the map. I saw the slightest smirk as he turned away, and that made me smile. Ever since we got together, that snivy really started to loosen up and tease me. I found it sweet.

That smirk didn't last for long however as he suddenly stopped, looking up at the sky with an inquisitive expression. "Alex?" I asked, unsure of what he was doing.

"Shh." He unsheathed his sword, throwing an arm out in front of us as he scanned the area cautiously. I wasn't sure what he'd seen, but the silence was making me nervous.

Suddenly in one quick motion he dove around us and struck outwards with his sword. I spun around, unsure of what he was doing until I caught sight of the terrifyingly familiar face of Shade, arms above his head at the mercy of Alex's sword. The sword's tip only met up to the zoroark's waist, but it was still enough of a threat to keep him at bay. Or so it seemed. "Alright Shade. Enough with the games. I don't know what problem you have with the Grace Family, but Ally isn't here and you're not getting to Eve."

That same twisted smirk Ally had described to me stayed with him as he chuckled, staring down at Alex without a care for the lethal weapon pointed at his waist. "Now who said I was after that powerless little brat?" He sent a chilling glare my direction. Whatever he had against my parents, it couldn't have been good. He didn't know about my powers yet though, so I went along with what he said. "Rather. I'm in need of a little, say… Assistance."

Assistance? What could he possibly want from us? "What? Why would we want to help you?" I asked. As much as I would've like to help him, I doubted this assistance he was referring to was a plea for turning his life around.

"Well, to put it simply." I felt Lisa's weight lift off my back as she appeared right in front of Alex's blade in a puff of smoke, Shade himself having moved back a safe distance. I heard Alex gasp as he quickly withdrew his sword. Shade laughed in amusement at the display. "My. I've never seen someone forget about my magic so quickly. Then again, you put up a rather amusing act. Bravo."

"Arceus, if I'd known you were just going to toy with them, I would've done this myself." A voice echoed. Shade's amusement all but vanished as an almost emotionless mismagius exited a portal to his side. She glanced down at Lisa. "A hostage, Shade? Is that what I asked you to retrieve?"

Shade visibly trembled. "I assure you, I—"

"—A red gem, Shade. I'm tired of waiting while you play your little games with that family. Off with you. I'll see to this myself."

The zoroark backed away, clearly at a loss. "That wasn't the deal!"

The mismagius spared him nothing but a glance. "The deal, if memory serves, was that you would retrieve the item that I request in return for what has been taken from you. Since you've failed on your part, I hold no obligation to honor my side of the agreement. Now if you will, the eevee and I have business to discuss." I had no idea what they were talking about, but something about this mismagius' formality was petrifying. Nothing in her expression suggested any type of emotion at all.

Shade backed down unwillingly as she turned her chilling gaze on the rest of us. "Evening Grace, was it?" Lisa reappeared on my back as she spoke. "I assume you understood enough of that to figure out what I want. I know you have the gem I'm looking for. Don't make this any more complicated than it needs to be. Hand it over, and we'll quietly part our separate ways."

I frowned. Whoever this lady was, I didn't trust her with the gem. I wasn't even sure what it was, but she made it sound important. "And what if we say no? You don't have a hostage anymore, and I'm not letting Lisa out of my sight again."

She seemed amused, even to the point of chuckling. "By all means, try whatever you want. Run, teleport, fight me even. It doesn't matter. I'll have that gem regardless. But keep in mind, I don't intend to continue this peaceful exchange for long."

Admittedly, I lost my patience a bit. By the time I could even process what I was doing, I'd already tossed a mage sphere at the mismagius… but nothing happened. In fact, the sphere seemed to phase right through her, only to disappear before it had a chance to escape. She sighed. "As I was saying, what you do doesn't matter to me. I will have that gem. It should be in your best interest that we resolve this as peacefully as possible. Heck, I'll even make sure this bothersome zoroark leaves you alone for good. Whatever choice you make, don't task my patience."

I couldn't think straight. Normally I was great at handling things under pressure, but this mismagius had us cornered. By all means, we could probably escape with a good enough plan, but I wasn't willing to risk Lisa's life any more than I already had.

"Take it." Alex stepped in, silently rubbing my back to calm me down. "If it's the gem you want, take it." He reached for my bag. I didn't interfere as he retrieved the familiar glowing gem Connor had given me and held it out to the mismagius.

She seemed to almost smile. "So, the boy has common sense?" She retrieved the gem, admiring it for a moment. "Great doing business with you. Now, as for Shade."

"Leave him." I glared at her. "And whatever you said he lost. Leave that here too. We'll deal with it ourselves."

She seemed amused. "Oh? Recovered our backbone, have we?" She chuckled. "Very well. I do suppose the truth is more heartbreaking to hear." It was with that last remark that she vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving behind what looked to be a golden statue of a braixen.

* * *

**Grace Family House:**

Once we reached the house, I made Shade knock on the door. He'd put up no resistance to being escorted back to town, and even though Mom would likely tackle him the moment she saw him, I felt he deserved it. And that she did. The moment Mom opened the door, she gave him the most chilling glare I'd ever seen, shouted some things I had to cover Lisa's ears for, and practically bulldozed him to the ground. He didn't dare fight back.

We just stepped around them with the statue and headed inside while they settled things. After ten or so minutes, Mom and a beaten and bruised Shade walked in and sat down. I say beaten and bruised, but what he looked like when he came in is probably nothing close to what he did outside. Mom likely healed him a bit before they entered.

"So." She spoke up, trying to keep her anger in check. "You need my help with something?"

"Yeah, umm." I looked to the statue. "Shade said you'd know what to do."

When Mom saw the statue, she gasped. "Sarah… Oh that poor girl. Where did you? No." She approached the statue, examining it. "Let's see if I remember that spell." She placed her paw on the statue, closing her eyes as her ribbons raised up into the air, almost as if they were being tugged upwards by some invisible force. Almost immediately, whatever golden substance was encasing the braixen started to dissolve, flaking off her and vanishing without a trace. Once the gold was completely gone, Mom opened her eyes and caught the braixen as she fell.

"Alex sweetie. Use your vines to help me carry her to the couch." Alex did just that. While not entirely used to carrying things with his vines yet, the two managed to carry the still young looking braixen over to the couch where they left her to rest. "Thanks Alex. Make sure she stays calm if she wakes up. Give her some food and water too. Now, Shade. I believe we have more to talk about in another room."

"Agreed." He sighed, following my mother deeper into the house where the sound of a door closing was heard. They likely wouldn't be returning for a while.

Just when we were about to relax, there was a knock at the door. Flare answered it, and to our surprise it was Grovyle and Celebi. Without a word Flare let them in and we gathered around them.

"Grovyle? You two already collected all the time gears? Wow. That must be some sort of record or something. Even if you explained everything to the lake guardians."

Grovyle shook his head. "Not exactly. Normally collecting the time gears takes a few days but, seems we don't need to. Time is, well, for lack of our understanding, completely fine."

We all just stared at him, believing this to be some sort of joke. "Fine?! What do you mean fine?! We just came back from that super dark future with no time."

"Trust me, if we knew, we'd tell you. Something about this doesn't add up and it's worrying me, but for now we should just be grateful we didn't—." Celebi quickly shushed him. "Right, well. We should just be happy that time is safe. There's enough time to worry about why later, but for now we need a place to stay. I'm beat." He yawned, earning a quick elbow jab from Celebi.

I chuckled. "Well you're welcome to stay here. Just uhh, ignore the unconscious braixen on the couch and you'll be good." But he was way ahead of me, the two having already turned a corner towards the guest rooms. I sighed. "We really need to take a break."


	21. Ex: To Call Myself a Mother

To call myself a mother would be foolish. You thought you had it all. Back then in those early mornings when you played ignorantly in the garden, your still developing mind lost in what it thought was a perfect world. Never did you think you'd lose it. I did this to you. I left you, and now you're lost. I can hear you crying, unable to comprehend why I'm gone. And when it rains, you're cold and wet because you have no shelter.

To call myself a mother would be infuriating. I don't deserve it. You're out there alone and you're hungry. All while I sit here and hide. I'm selfish. I was supposed to take care of you, to protect you, but all I did was hurt you.

To call myself a mother would be a compromise. A way to settle for what I've done to you. Would you forgive me? If I came back to you, would everything be ok? Would you embrace me just like before, like nothing ever happened? I wonder what you'd think of me if you knew why. Would it matter if you did?

To call myself a mother would be heartbreaking. I know you'll resent me. If you knew, you'd never want to see me. You'll move on and grow up without me. I'll miss your first love and your first kiss. I won't be around to comfort you if he hurts you. I'll miss your wedding, and your children won't have a grandmother to look up to.

I won't call myself a mother. I can't and I won't. When in all your right you seek me out, bent on answers and anger in your heart. You criticize my decision and say you hate me. Only then will I call myself a mother.


	22. Ex: The Crystal Princess

* * *

This is a story that begins with the stars. Long ago in a galaxy far away, a crystal comet crashed into the planet Oracion. The comet was so beautiful that it came to be admired and cherished by the inhabitants of the planet; creatures of all different shapes and sizes called pokémon.

* * *

**Journal 2:**

Dear journal. Today I asked Daddy where I came from, but when I asked him, he looked surprised. I laughed at him because his tail fuzzed up all funny like it always did when he was caught off guard. It looked like a fuzzy scarf had come to life and snuck up on him, and I couldn't help but chuckle at his rose colored cheeks and confused expression.

He told me not to worry. He said that girls my age should worry about friends and having fun, not about stressful things like the past. Daddy always says that thinking too much on the past will make you sad, but I can't help my curiosity. Was he right? Maybe I was just being silly, like the time I accidentally put colored dye in the bath instead of regular soap, and instead of a bubble bath I dyed my fur pink. The look on his face then was funny too. Maybe he was mad. I asked him if he was, but he couldn't answer. Or maybe he was just embarrassed, because his face looked like he'd accidentally dyed it pink too.

I think that maybe sometimes my imagination is too wild. One night I watched the stars with Daddy, and all through the next day I found myself daydreaming about them. I remember thinking about what it'd be like to be up there with the stars, but Daddy said I was talking through my daydreams. I wanted to ask him what I said, but I was too embarrassed.

Daddy is weird too. He told me that I should name this journal and take it wherever I went. I asked him why, but he responded with a silly look and a laugh.

I decided to name this journal Veralos because it sounded fun. I don't think Daddy liked it. When Daddy asked me about the name, I responded with a silly look and a laugh too. Was that bad? Oh well. I thought it was funny. I got to see his tail fuzz up again.

Ooh! I almost forgot. Today I'm supposed to meet someone. Daddy said I should make some friends, so he set up what he called a "play date" with a nice couple nearby. I heard that they had a boy my age, and Daddy wanted us to be friends. I think his name was Jeric. I told Daddy that his name sounded weird. He agreed.

* * *

At first the pokémon didn't know what to do with the beautiful comet. They sat around the crystal for hours, enjoying its beauty together in harmony. Then came the legendaries, pokémon of high respect and spirit, with great merit as proof. Knowing to show respect, the pokémon bowed to the legendaries. The legendaries, knowing and wise as they were, suggested that the comet be moved somewhere safe in order to preserve its beauty. With full trust and love from the pokémon, an agreement was made and a safe placed was soon prepared. The legendaries sought out the largest tree in the land, and used their great power to hollow it out into a shrine for the lovely comet.

For years to come, pokémon from far and wide came to witness the beauty of the crystal. Tales of fantasy and lore quickly spread throughout the land of many wondering just how special the comet was. Some thought it was magical and helped the land grow. Some thought it could grant wishes, and some thought it could cure any illness, but all were amazed by its beauty. Not even the most cunning of jewel thieves dared to steal it. It was as if the comet soothed the very souls of those who saw it and brought about peace.

* * *

**Journal 3:**

Dear journal. Today I met Jeric. He was a nice boy, though I think he was shy. He didn't speak much at first, and he looked really uncomfortable. Instead of talking, I showed him around while his parents were busy talking to Daddy. Even though he was nervous, I think he was excited. His face didn't say it, but his eyes did. Maybe he was just surprised that we lived inside a tree, or maybe no one ever talked to him much. I asked him why, but he didn't respond.

I showed him the garden where Daddy and I would stand outside for hours watering the flowers and picking berries. I showed him the clouds Daddy could make that had the ability to support your weight. Jeric liked those, so I told him that Daddy could make him some. I showed him my room too, and he asked me my name. I was surprised. I think my tail fuzzed up just like Daddy's.

Jeric told me that his parents were explorers. He said that they traveled all over the world together until they had him, and he wanted to be an explorer too. He asked if I wanted to be an explorer, and I didn't know what to say. Daddy always said it was good to stay safe and close to home. Was that true? I wasn't sure, so I told Jeric I didn't know.

When Jeric left, I felt sad. I asked Daddy about it, and he said that's what happens when you miss someone. I asked him what he meant. He said that missing someone means that you sometimes feel lonely when they aren't around. Is this what having friends feels like? I asked him, but he gave me that silly look again.

I asked Daddy to read to me tonight. He looked at me funny. I think he was confused because I could already read. I told him that I wanted to hear stories about adventure and the world. I wanted to know about exploring just like Jeric. Daddy agreed to read to me, but I think he was still confused. I laughed at him.

* * *

During the nights when no one visited, the legendaries were hard at work. They wanted to understand the crystal. For many nights they studied the crystal, but they couldn't learn anything about it. They were taken by surprise one night when the crystal began to shine. The crystal shone so brightly that not even the legendaries could see through it.

Then from the crystal emerged a beautiful newborn pokemon, with fur the color of fine cream and soft earth. The legendaries, even with their wisdom and power, were left perplexed at the sight of the newborn. They believed the young pokémon to be special, and treated it like royalty. A beautiful princess born from a beautiful crystal.

* * *

**Journal 4:**

Dear journal. Today Jeric and I explored near the lake close to our town. Dad hesitated when I asked him, but he agreed to let me go as long as I didn't go too far. Secretly, I think he was just nervous that I was spending a lot of time with Jeric. Silly as always. Jeric led the way since I'd never been outside the town, and I was excited.

Jeric and I searched for shells on the shore of the lake. The lake was huge, almost like a mini ocean, and had warm sandy shores in the evenings. We found a bunch of shells, all with intricate shapes and vibrant colors. My favorite were the flat, circular ones with the little ridges. I think they were called sand dollars? I wasn't sure why, but they were beautiful. After collecting shells, we had splash fights in the water. Jeric always lost the splash fights. I think he was still a little nervous like before.

Once the sun started to set, Jeric and I sat next to each other on the sand. We watched the sunset and counted the shells we'd collected together. Before we left, I wanted to thank Jeric for bringing me to the lake, so I gave him a kiss on the cheek. His tail fuzzed up too.

At home I asked Dad what it meant to be excited about a kiss. I told him I kissed Jeric, and I think he almost fainted. Silly Dad. He told me that being excited about kissing someone meant that you might like them a lot. I asked him why, but he just laughed. He said I was still too young to think about stuff like that. Was I? I thought I was old enough. I was old enough to explore outside of my town, but I trusted Dad.

Oh yeah! Tomorrow's my birthday. Dad said I should get to sleep early so I'm not too tired. I hope I get to see Jeric again!

* * *

The legendaries announced to the pokémon about the beautiful princess they'd discovered, and with each day more and more came to visit her. Each visitor praised the young kit with complements and gifts, and soon she became known as the crystal princess.

Once visitors started visiting in smaller numbers, the legendaries got together and discussed where the pokémon kit would stay. Not wanting to put her up for adoption, one of the legendaries decided to take in the kit and raise her as their own. He named her Saria, and as she grew, she only became more beautiful.

* * *

**Journal 5:**

Dear journal. Today Dad and I spent some time in the garden. He told me he wanted us to spend some time together, and I got to pick what we did, so I picked the garden. When I was little, Dad and I would do this all the time. Sometimes when picking the berries, I'd toss some at him and we'd have berry fights. We also used to name the flowers together. Dad's name's were always silly things like Bubbles or Breezy. Mine were better.

Today we were just talking. Dad asked me what I thought about Jeric, since I spent a lot of time with him. I was confused. I asked him why he wanted to know, but he didn't respond. Instead he threw a berry at me, and named a flower.

* * *

As Saria grew, the crystal slowly broke down. After five years, the crystal broke down into ten shards. Each shard had its own color and shape, and the legendaries found them to be magical. Each took one of the shards and displayed it for all to see in their lands.

The legendary who adopted Saria brought his shard home as a gift for the young pokémon. The shard, as if in recognition of Saria, shone brilliantly whenever it was around her. Surprised, the spirit couldn't help but smile at the sight. With great skill, the spirit fashioned a necklace for the young pokémon, with the shard hanging from it as a jewel.

* * *

**Journal 1:**

Dear journal. Today Daddy gave me a present! A pretty red gem. He went through the trouble of making it into a necklace, and it even shone a little. I asked him why, but he told me he didn't know. Silly Daddy! I thanked him for the gift, and we spent the rest of the morning in the garden.

Oh! Daddy said he's going to meet with friends of his to set up a "play date". I wasn't sure what that was, but it sounded fun. He said I could go with him, but I wanted to write more in my journal. He's going to have one of his legendary friends watch over me. I asked him why they were so legendary, but he told me he couldn't remember. I think he did remember though. Was he embarrassed? Probably. His tail was all fuzzed up again. Silly Daddy.


End file.
